Undercover Cop 2!
by xx.Nicolie.xx
Summary: Jack and Martha sequel. Read 'Undercover Cop' first!
1. Chapter 1

**Undercover Cop 2.**

Chapter 1.

Jack suddenly awoke from his nightmare, puffing and panting. He'd had another dream about Martha, well, another flashback. The memory relived in his head, the one where Jenny had knocked Martha off the cliff. Jack sat up to find Tony and Lucas by his side, both looking equally as concerned. This was the 3rd night in a row that he'd woken up in such a state, even though Jenny was now locked up, he still didn't feel that she was being made suffer enough for taking such a precious life away, but in the eyes of the law, justice had been made.

About a week after the assault, Jack assured his fellow police officers that he was able to arrest Dave, he wanted to do it for Martha. He hadn't realised though, that he'd also have to explain about Martha's death, and watch Dave's reaction to it. Dave, was quite upset, but he wasn't as upset as he should be. Dave took this in rather quickly and then started to complain for his arrest, it dawned on Jack that his beliefs were true, Dave hadn't loved Martha, maybe he wanted to love her, but he didn't, and never had. Jack ensured that Dave went down for everything, the drugs, the threatening behaviour, the killings and most of all, the assaults on Martha. After Dave had been sent to prison, Jack was very pleased that he'd accomplished something that meant so much to Martha, it was just a shame that she couldn't be there to witness it.

He walked into the Holden house, for the first time in weeks. Tony and Lucas followed shortly behind, carrying the suitcases. Tony put his hand on his eldest sons shoulder.

"I'm sorry mate, you've done everything she wanted though, she'd be proud of you." Tony knew how much Jack was hurting, by the way Jack had acted the last two weeks Tony could tell that he'd really loved Martha, quite like Tony had loved Jack's mum, so he knew how desperately upset Jack was feeling inside. Jack thanked his dad and left to his room, carrying the two suitcases packed full with things. As he looked around his room, he noticed an opened draw with something peaking out. He went over to investigate, pulling out photo of him and Martha. He stared in a trance at the photo, he'd tried so hard to keep his emotions bottled up inside the past couple weeks, but it was unbearable. He slumped on the floor, photo in his hand, as a few silent tears ran down his cheek. He rested his head in his hands.

Jack woke up, facing the picture. 'Must have dozed off' he thought, gently putting the photo down on the side, trying to spare himself the pain of thinking of Martha again. He got up and walked into the kitchen and straight to the fridge, bypassing a worried Lucas and Tony.

"Listen, mate, Alf is coming over, he wants to sort out some of the stuff with you." Tony said. "But I'm sure he'll understand if you're not feeling up to it." Lucas and Tony were now leaning against the back of the sofa, looking at Jack who was pouring himself some orange juice.

"No, it's fine, I might aswell do it now." Jack sipped his orange juice, staring out the window.

"You sure mate because I can just tell-" Tony began, but Jack turned around sharply.

"I said it's fine." He snapped. Jack walked slowly over to his dad and Lucas, who were both shocked by Jack's out of character reaction. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you." He sighed, sitting down opposite them on the armchair. "I just want to get it over and done with."

Martha woke up with the sun glaring into her eyes and a cold flannel resting on her forehead. She panicked as she looked around at her unfamiliar surroundings. She was in a dingy house that looked like it was in need of a good cleaning, and definitely a feminine touch. As she got up, she felt her body ache, but persisted in looking around. 'Where am I?' She thought. 'The last thing I can remember is…' Thoughts of Jack and Jenny flew across her mind. Jack was dead, and Jenny could get away with it. She needed to get out and make sure Jenny pays for what she's done, she had to do it for herself, and for Jack. She panicked as she struggled with the door, frantically trying to open it. She moved over to the other door, but it was locked aswell. 'Hang on' she thought, 'there's not necessarily a bad reason for why I'm here. Someone may have saved me, and was just looking after me, and here I am, freaking out!' She then heard footsteps coming towards the room, almost like a reply to her thinking. The door sprung open.

"Oh, your up. You've been here for about a week now, you only woke up to get some food and then doze back off! I could tell you weren't going to stay awake, you were all in a daze and not thinking straight." A tall, handsome man smiled at her, slowly shutting the door behind him. Martha smiled, 'he looks nice and friendly' she thought.

"Hi! Erm, I don't mean to sound rude, but I really need to go, it's urgent." She said, "Thank you for helping me." She started to make her way to the door, when he reached out and grabbed her arm.

"Oh, you're not going anywhere, you have to stay here, with the others." He smiled, pulling her towards another door. Martha panicked.

"No! Please! I really need to go!" She shouted, trying to get away from his tight grasp, but it was no use, he was too strong. He pushed her through the door and then slammed it shut, locking it before he walked away with a smile across his face.

"That's 4."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2.

Jack lugged the two suitcases into the living room, placing them in front of Alf's feet, without saying a word. He leant against the sofa with his hands in his pockets.

"You want me to load them into the boot?" Jack offered. Alf looked confused.

"I came to sort them out with you, mate." Jack's gaze shifted from the suitcases to Alf's face.

"I..I can't." He stuttered. "I'm not ready, I can't do this, I can't shift through her stuff knowing that she won't be back to reclaim it." Jack lifted a hand out of his pocket to rub his face. He took a loud breath in, looking up to the ceiling away from Alf's stare, then returned his hand to his pocket. Alf stood there for a moment.

"Jack, I know how you feel, Martha was a great girl, and she will be sorely missed, by everyone. I know how she felt about you, she'd have wanted you to do this, she trusted you and you'll know more than me on which stuff can go, and which can stay. She felt real strongly for you Jack, she'd often ask about you." Alf said reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out a wad of envelopes and handed them to Jack. "I know she wouldn't have minded you reading them." Alf smiled. Jack took the envelopes.

"Thankyou.." He said, looking through them, he put them on the side. "Come on, these aren't going to unpack themselves." He forced a smile as he knelt beside the suitcase and gestured Alf to sit down. Alf chuckled to himself quietly, as he watched Jack open the first suitcase. He knew that Jack really loved Martha, Tony had told him how bad he had taken it. He watched Jack open the lid and take a sigh before slowly taking some of Martha's possessions out of the case. Alf knew that Jack didn't want to look in the suitcase, because it would just add to the pain, but Alf admired him for helping out, and could really see what his granddaughter saw in him.

It took them about two hours to sort out both cases, this was because Jack had occasionally picked up a top, or another piece of clothing that reminded him of their good times together. As they went through the case, both men tried to stay brave, but often had to "go to the toilet" to have a bit of a think. Alf offered to take the clothes to a charity, but Jack insisted that he could take care of that, so the next thing was items. There weren't many items, just some framed photos of Alf, Ric, Tasha and Robbie, and two books. Jack immediately recognized the first; it was the photo album. He opened to the last pages, the section with him and Martha. He looked through them, smiling at the pictures, but he wasn't feeling too sad, he wasn't feeling as bad as he had done, he was feeling quite happy actually, reliving the memories. Alf was pleased that Jack could smile at the memories of Martha, he placed his hand on Jack's shoulder.

"It's yours." He winked. Jack thanked him as he placed it on top of the clothes, and then looked down onto his lap, to see the second book. He opened it slowly. 'Dear Diary..' Jack slammed the book shut, feeling guilty. Alf looked at him, bemused.

"What was in there?" He said, taking the book from him. "Ohh, her diary!" He laughed, flicking through the pages. Jack looked at him in shock.

"Do you really think you should be reading that?" Jack asked. Alf chuckled at him.

"You're right." He handed the diary to Jack. "She wouldn't mind if you read it, but I'm not sure about her old granddad." Jack slowly retrieved the diary from Alf's outstretched hand.

"Erm, I'm not sure. I know that Lucas never liked me to go anywhere near his journal.." Jack said.

"Martha wouldn't have minded, honest. Anyway, I expect there'll be some truths in there that I'm sure you'd like to know, some things that you may not have had chance to discuss." Jack nodded, understandingly. Alf was right, they hadn't had any chance to talk about what had happened, it would be nice to know what she was thinking in her head. His trail of thought was distracted when Alf let out a big sigh.

"Well, now we've got that out of the way, I'd like to invite you to Noah's later, for about 6. I've asked some of Martha's close friends to come, and we can organise something for her, a tribute of some kind, seen as though we don't have a wedding we can't have a proper funeral, but I think that the lass deserves something."

"Of course." Jack said, he'd got a huge confidence boost after looking through the pictures, he was finally coming to terms with it, it was hard and upsetting, but it was slowly getting better, he was coping. After that, Alf took the suitcases home, filled with some of Martha's possessions. Jack rested the pile of Martha's clothes on the end of his bed, laying on top was the photo album and the journal. He stared at the journal, his fingers itching with curiosity. He looked at his watch. 'Shower.' He thought, he dragged his eyes away from the journal and headed to the shower.

Meanwhile, Martha was still freaking out about her new home. It was like a totally different house from what she'd been in before she had been pushed through the door. The walls were white, there was barely any furniture in the room, apart from a few white beanbags, and a table and chair set in the corner, all white. There were no windows in the room, and the carpet was white too. The bright white almost blinded her as she scanned the room, looking for a way out. She soon realised that the only way out, was the way in. She started frantically banging her fists against the cold metal door.

"Please! Let me out! I need to help Jack!" She turned around, crying, and hit her back against the door, sliding down into a ball on the floor. She thought about Jack, how she wished that she were with him, he'd be able to help her, or at least make her feel safe. But he wasn't, he was never going to be able to help her again, he would never hold her to make her feel safe, nor would he ever again make her smile. She laid down, crying and whimpered "Sorry Jack.."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 Martha heard a noise, coming from the opposite side of the room, she quickly got up, wiping away her tears, and walking over cautiously to where the noise was coming from. A part of the wall swung open, and 3 other people were pushed in, 1 falling head first into a beanbag. The other two shook their heads at this. 

"Do you have to be such an idiot Ryan?" The woman said, with her hands on her hips. They then all suddenly looked up at Martha, who was now very confused and scared.

"Don't be frightened, we're in the same mess as you." The woman said, walking closer to Martha. "My name is Christie, and this is Ryan and Callum." She said, pointing at the two guys. "What's your name?"

"I'm.. Martha." She said, still wondering what was going on. "Erm, what 'mess' is that exactly?" She asked. Christie, Callum and Ryan looked at one another, then back at Martha.

"I think you best take a seat for this." Suggested Callum. Martha slowly sat down on a beanbag, waiting for their explanations.

Jack arrived at Noahs to find Tasha, Robbie, Ric, Cassie and Alf sat around a table. They all looked very sad, Tasha especially. Jack pulled up a chair as he sat between Alf and Robbie.

"Sorry I'm late." Jack apologized. "I lost track of time." He wasn't lying. He'd found himself staring at the journal on the bottom of his bed, trying to persuade himself to look, but part of him couldn't bring himself to doing it.

"It's okay." Alf assured him. "Right, let's put our thinking caps on, what would Martha have really liked?" He asked them, they all sat there in deep thought for a moment, scanning their individual knowledge of Martha.

"What about if we have a nice service at the beach?" Tasha suggested. "She loved it there, then maybe we can have a little bit of a Wake kind of thing in here, she did used to work here after all." The group nodded.

"Sounds like a really good idea Tash." Ric smiled.

"Well, that's set then!" Alf clapped his hands. "Now, about the service.." The group of friends then assigned themselves to particular jobs, and set a date for the service.

Martha sat gob smacked at what she heard.

"So let me get this straight. This guy, Trevor, and his mates watch the cliff, waiting for a disturbance, when they notice one they then go to the ledge below and wait for someone to fall?" She checked.

"Pretty much. He thinks that the people who fall off the cliff are angels or something, that's why he's locked us up, not everyone comes across an angel everyday!" Christie laughed.

"What a complete nutter!" She exclaimed. The others laughed.

"Yea, you got that right Martha!" Ryan smiled.

"Call me Mac." She grinned.

"So, why did you jump then?" Christie asked, cautiously.

"Oh, I didn't jump, I got deliberately knocked by Jenny this.." Martha was only going to upset herself by talking about the whole Jack situation, and she didn't want to cry anymore over something she couldn't do anything about. "I don't want to talk about her." She sighed.

"That's fine." Callum said.

"So, how did you three fall then?" Martha enquired. Callum, Christie and Ryan all looked embarrassed.

"We didn't 'fall' as such." Explained Callum.

"We jumped." Ryan finished.

"Oh.." Martha said, unsure how to react.

"You see, it's a suicide hotspot." Christie said, trying to break the silence, but it soon resumed afterwards, only to be broken again by the door re-opening. Martha started to run towards the door, but was held back by Callum. She quickly spun around to see what Callum was doing. 'Why is he holding me back?' she thought. Callum maintained his grip.

"Please, don't say anything, I'm starving." He pleaded with her. Martha's attention was distracted by the squeaking of the wheels of a food trolley coming from the door. The person pushing it was new to Martha, it wasn't Trevor like she'd expected. She turned back to Callum and nodded. He then smiled and dived towards the table, where all 3 of them grabbed their plates, scoffing down their food.

"Aren't you going to eat anything?" Ryan asked, pointing to the plate left on the trolley. Martha sighed and nodded, as she walked towards the trolley and picked up the plate. She sat back onto a beanbag, and slowly eat her food.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 

It was the night before Martha's ceremony, and Jack was trying to write Martha's speech. It's not that he was short of words when it came to Martha, he could go on for hours about the great gal she was, but he knew that he couldn't go through pages and pages talking about her. He had to have a brief summary of her, which was hard for him, because when he started talking about her, he found it difficult to stop. He reached out for a drink, and then put it down, next to the journal that was now on the table. He'd moved it into the kitchen, for some inspiration. He really wanted to read it, but he wasn't sure if it was right. He looked back down, at his blank sheet of paper. 'Well, Alf did say that I should.." He thought, and quickly grabbed the journal, before he could argue with himself. He opened the first page, he was surprised how early the date read, it was the day before they first met, the day before the party. He read through the first page, jotting some friendly comments down that she'd made about her friends Tasha and Robbie. He turned over to the next entrée.

_Dear Diary,_

_I've just come back from Tasha and Robbie's house warming party, and I'm fuming! Everyone was enjoying themselves, apart from me, then a jerk of an officer came in and ordered the music to be turned down, due to a complaint. It wasn't even loud! He must have known that! Idiot!_

Jack laughed, he could imagine Martha saying it as he read it.

_Well, I'll tell you why I was in such a bad mood before the music incident; Tasha and Robbie were trying to set me up with their friends. It was my own stupid fault for complaining to them that I was a bit, well, not happy that I'm 18 and single. Not that I'm desperate or anything, because I'm not, I just know that Tash loves what her and Robbie have, and I guess I'd like to experience the same. Anyway, Tasha and Robbie setting me up with their friends has DISASTER written all over it! Tash and Robbie came over, introducing the dates they'd both organized, they were both obviously competing against each other, wanting me to pick their friend. They filled me in on them both, but I kept insisting for them to leave it. They finally got the message, and then apologized for their freakish behaviour! That's when the police officer came in._

"Wow." Jack thought. He'd never known that Martha had been single for a while before he met her, he figured that she would always have guys running after her, she was a really great woman, and he felt the luckiest man in the world when they were together.

_He was so annoying, I'm sure he loved to tell us to turn it off, I bet he felt really pleased with himself. I HAD to comment, I wasn't going to let a uniform frighten me, so I said what I thought, and I thought "jerk." Sure, it wasn't the cleverest thing I've ever done, and when he did turn around, I must admit I did feel the tiniest bit worried, but he just smiled! After he left, I couldn't stop ranting and raving about how annoying he'd been. I don't know why he got to me, he just did!_

Jack chuckled, reliving the memory, then flicking over to the next page.

_Dear diary,_

_You never guess what happened to me today! I was driving along with Robbie and Tash, when I got pulled over by a cop! But not any cop, it was the same one from last night. His name is Jack Holden, a new cop here in Summer Bay, and he had the cheek to say that I was speeding. Sure, I was going a bit over the limit, but I know that road like the back of my hand, I was perfectly safe going at that speed, but he thought otherwise, and gave me a ticket. We then went to the Hunter's house, where we stood in the front garden talking about the Single's night that Beth had been on. She said it was a disaster, and that she had no luck. Well, it's not just me that is having trouble finding a guy then. Whilst we were talking, we all noticed a removal van pulling up in front of next doors house. The Hunter's new neighbours were arriving. A car pulled up on the drive, and a man and a boy got out, walking up to us. They introduced themselves, Tony and Lucas Holden. I got the biggest shock though when he indicated to a car that was now pulling up, it was his eldest son arriving back from work. When he got out I was so annoyed to find it was Jack! I can't believe he's going to be living so close, I really can't stand that guy!_

Jack then read on, through pages and pages of Martha's handwriting, recording her day's events. He had discovered really how guilty Martha had felt after she had been horrible to Jack at the town meeting, and also how she felt after her spider joke going terribly wrong. Jack grew mad at himself when he thought about how horrible he'd been to her, but this emotion faded away when he read about their first kiss, and their first date.

_Dear Diary,_

_Last night I had the most amazing date I've ever had in my life! I went to Jack's house, and at first I was shocked that Jack was in normal clothes. I felt totally embarrassed that I'd thought we were going out for dinner and that I was stood there, all 'dolled up.' But, it was worth it when I saw Jack's reaction, so cute!_

Jack laughed. He had said "wow" by accident when he saw how she looked, and he felt pretty stupid for doing it. He never thought that she'd have found it cute!

_Anyway, I walked in to a lovely, romantic dinner set up on the table. It all looked so gorgeous, too good to be true in fact, so I took a sneaky look around to see if I could see any take away boxes of some kind._

Jack couldn't stop laughing at this, he had never seen her do this, and she'd never mentioned it either! Now he came to think of it, she had made a comment, that implied she wasn't sure if he'd done it all by himself.

_We got on great, I really enjoyed the meal, and the company. I couldn't stop smiling whenever I thought about him doing this for me. It was so beautiful, and it was all for me! I felt the luckiest girl alive last night, as he walked me down the beach, hand in hand. I was freezing, but I didn't want to go back, I didn't want the evening to end. But he saw me shiver, and put his jacket around my shoulders. I melted at how sweet he was, even though it was the cheesiest thing ever, he made it very cute and personal. After that I couldn't resist kissing him, and then spending the night with him. I woke up and looked at him for a while, smiling at him, reliving the date and thinking about how sweet he'd been. _

_I really think that we could last a while, well, I hope we do._

Jack smiled to himself. He had hoped the same and when they broke up, it had shattered this hope. After a few more pages, he then started to read one of the hardest entrees so far, their break up.

_Dear Diary,_

_Me and Jack are over, and I really don't know what to say. I left his house about 20 minutes ago, after suggesting that we shouldn't be together anymore. He hasn't got over the ear accident, and I know that we can't continue the relationship if he still hasn't forgiven me for that, so I was forced to end it. I wish I could say with confidence that I'll get over him, but I'm not sure._

Jack thought about his feelings that night, when he collapsed on his bed trying to come to terms with it. He too wasn't sure if he'd get over Martha, he didn't know why, but he just couldn't imagine not being together with Martha, he really did like her, and he didn't want it to end. He continued to read on about Martha and Corey's relationship, the way Martha had described him was only as a friend, and together with the information that she'd told him back in Sydney it made sense. She still wrote about Jack, how he'd acted that day, how she missed him, and how annoyed she was with herself for holding back her feelings towards him when he asked for her back.

Jack looked at his watch, it was very nearly 2am and he didn't want to be late or look shockingly tired for the ceremony tomorrow, so he shut the book and went to bed. Reading the 20 or so pages had given him a good idea what to say tomorrow, and he had confidence in himself that he would give the best speech that Martha deserved.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Mac, she was great." Jack sighed. "She was fun, caring and most of all, a great friend to everyone." Jack laughed to himself, reliving the memory. "She.. She had a way of making you smile, even if you didn't think it was possible that you could. That talent of hers made it practically impossible to hold a grudge, well I know I found it hard." Jack gave a heavy sigh, he then looked at Robbie and Tasha, remembering what he'd read last night. "One of the most important things to Mac, apart from beer and footy of course, was her friends." The audience gave a light laugh, chuckling at thoughts of the tomboy. "Tasha, Robbie, Ric and many more. She could ramble about them for hours, about how great they were, about how much they meant to her, about how lucky she felt to know them." Jack started to gain confidence. "I know that she left the bay, quite suddenly really, but she never stopped caring for you all. When I was with her in Sydney, one of our first conversations was about you all. I could tell just by looking at her that she envied me for still knowing you, for you all still being part of my life, as she wanted what I had, she wanted all of you." He looked at the silent audience, and then to the book in his hand. He held it up. "This is one of Martha's possessions that she had with her in Sydney. It's a photo album filled with pictures of you all. She told me that she'd look at it when she was down and lonely, and personally, that makes me happy. Even though I wasn't aware of it at the time, we were all helping her get through the hard times, like friends should." Jack's speech continued, the audience stayed silent with the occasional sniffle or the gentle sound of the wave disturbing the quietness. He brought up classic Martha moments, lifting the mood, and really reminded everyone of the great Martha that they'd missed for 14 months. "I know everyone loved her and will miss her, no one more than myself. She may have gone from Summer Bay, but she definitely hasn't gone from memory." Jack's throat started to ache, as he tried to keep his tears away, and sat down.

"Well done mate, she would have really been proud." Tony said, putting his hand on his eldest sons shoulder.

"Thanks." Jack mumbled. He sat through the rest of the service daydreaming about Martha. He watched Tasha at the front, fighting away her tears as she tried to get through her speech for her best friend. Robbie followed, he talked about the good times the trio shared. Himself, Tash and Mac. Jack smiled as he listened to their tales, he'd heard some of the mischief that they'd got up to before he came to the bay, but not all. He could imagine them, he was carrying out the stories in his head, it was the same Martha, but new actions, like she was living again.

Afterwards, at Noahs, many people came and put a comforting arm around Jack and thanked him for the speech. Jack did stay around for about 2 hours, but he then left early to go to the beach. He sat down, knees to his chest, staring out into sea, as EVERYONE in Summer Bay does when they're down and depressed. He lifted his shirt up, revealing the scar in his stomach. It was the only physical thing he had left of the crazy happenings that went on up on the cliff, and it was slowly healing and fading away.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Martha was finally coming to terms with her new home and had given up trying to escape. She'd made friends with Callum, Christie and Ryan, which improved the terrible living situation. All 3 of them had been living there together for a while now, Callum was the first to arrive, then Christie, then Ryan. Each one had chosen to jump, unlike Martha. They explained why to Martha, and she was deeply saddened by their stories of hurt, rejection, and fear. Callum had jumped due to his wife's death. It was their wedding day and his wife was involved in a car accident on the way to the church, he'd tried to cope, but everything in his life reminded him of her, so he chose to end his life. Christie was a victim of abuse, by her boyfriend. She'd tried to get away, but had nowhere to go as her parents had died when she was young, and she had no siblings. The only way she could escape was to die, and she felt that that was better than to suffer the abuse any more. The last one of the three, Ryan had jumped because his life was a total wreck, well he thought it was anyway. He had had a run of bad luck, starting off with his parents death, then his split up from long-term girlfriend Reanne, and he was then unable to get a job, resulting in him living on the streets.

"It was all too much, I couldn't bear to wait for the next bad thing to happen, so I decided to take some action to prevent anymore hurt and rejection." Ryan explained, "And look what has happened! I'm held in some place that's run by a nutter! My bad luck will never end.." He said. Martha frowned sympathetically.

"I'm so sorry guys, it sounds like you all had a pretty rough time." She said, in an apologetic tone.

"So, how was your life before you got landed with us!" Ryan enquired. Martha started to fiddle with the bottom of her jeans.

"I don't really want to talk about it just yet, it's a bit too soon, sorry." The other 3 nodded.

"It's fine, we understand." Christie said, putting her arm around Martha. "None of us wanted to talk about it when we first arrived. You take as long as you like, we're always here."

"Yes.. ALWAYS here.." Everyone laughed, they'd learned to laugh at their problems, because when they didn't and tried to run away from them, they ended up worse. They all went quiet as they heard the door slowly being unlocked, giving them the option of the second room, the lounge. This was Martha's favourite room of the house, as it had a comfy sofa, music, and video games. It was like a youth club really, at first she thought it was quite weird to give the people you are kidnapping luxuries such as video games and stereos, but now on her third day, she'd decided to stop wasting time and bothering herself by thinking about it, and just have as much fun as she could.

Jack was in his room, preparing himself for his first day back at work. He was praying for a big case to get his mind of Martha, but he knew that it wasn't going to happen this soon to his last undercover case, and he would also probably be assigned to paperwork for a while too. He walked out into the lounge, picking up his key's and jacket.

"Cya!" He said to Lucas and Tony, who were both getting ready for school.

"Have fun!" Lucas said, a mouth full of cereal. Jack went over and couldn't resist ruffling up Lucas' masterpiece of a hairstyle. "JACK!" He said, nearly choking on his cereal, he then ran to the mirror and tried to fix his hair. Jack laughed.

"You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you, don't you?.." Jack sang as he left the house. Tony and Lucas looked at one another.

"Well, he's certainly feeling a lot better this morning." Tony laughed, Lucas was too busy correcting his hair to comment.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Jack arrived at work, in the best mood that he'd been in since 'the cliff.' Whenever thinking about it, or talking about it, Jack always referred to it as 'the cliff', rather than having to talk about Martha's death. He hung his jacket up onto the coat stand that greeted the cops as they walked in, and then went to report to his Sarg's office. He knocked on the door.

"Come in, come in." Sergeant McGrath welcomed Jack. "Sit down Constable. How are you?" He asked in a sympathetic tone, the same tone that everyone had when talking to Jack recently.

"I'm fine! Glad to be back at work Sarg!" He smiled. Sergeant McGrath returned the smile.

"Well, I'm glad to hear it. I'm going to put you on paperwork today, and there's also a nice school talk that I'd like you to do tomorrow." McGrath said, shuffling his papers on the desk and handing them to Jack. He let out a big sigh.

"So you're making me do all of the time-wasters to stop me doing my job?" He blurted out. McGrath looked shocked and angry at Jack's outburst.

"Jack, all of these jobs need to be done, and I think it's best for you to stay from the action for a while-"

"Why? Because of Martha? I'm fine! Why is everyone going around acting as if I'm supposed to be suicidal!" Jack sighed. "I'm over it." Sergeant McGrath looked at him for a moment.

"Okay, if you've finished Constable, then go and complete the paperwork." He said, now angrily dropping the paper on the desk and leaving his office, leaving a frustrated Jack.

"Damn." He thought, picking up the paper and going to his desk. He'd found it hard to concentrate that shift, the thoughts of what he'd said in the office kept running through his mind. 'I'm over it.' He knew that he wasn't, the more he denied it the worse it got, he felt guilty for acting as if Martha meant nothing to him, and that he wanted to forget about her. He was confused. Half of him wanted to forget about Martha and to get on with his life, but the other half didn't want to let go.

About a week later, Jack was still doing paperwork for his full shift. He'd think about Martha constantly throughout his shift and also on the drive home. He'd pull up on the drive, collect his thoughts, and put on a big smile. This happened everyday, and today wasn't going to be any different.

"Hey, anyone home?" Jack shouted out, to a silent house. "Obviously not." He said taking his coat off and resting it on the back of the sofa. He walked through the corridor, in the direction of his room when he heard a noise come from Lucas' room.

"Luc?" He said, pushing the door open.

"Hi!" Luc practically shouted. Jack looked at Matilda and Lucas.

"What are you two doing?" He enquired curiously. Matilda and Lucas looked at one another.

"Nothing." They said in unison, smiling sweetly. Jack laughed.

"Okay then.." He shut the door behind him.

"Hmm, I see what you mean." Matilda said, getting up from where she was sat cross-legged on the floor. "He didn't look like that when he was sat in the car, did he?"

"No. I hope he's okay, I just wish he'd talk to me, or dad." Lucas sighed, getting up and walking Matilda to the door, kissing her on the cheek goodbye.

"Do I get a kiss?" Tony and Matilda laughed as Tony walked behind her, Lucas went red with embarrassment.

"Good luck Lucas!" Matilda shouted. Lucas nodded and shut the door after watching her enter her house. Tony spun around from his spot in the kitchen.

"Good luck with what?" He casually asked, placing his bag on the worktop.

"With Jack. I told her about him acting strange recently, and then we found some more 'evidence' that just backed up our theory even more." Lucas explained.

"What's this new 'evidence' then?" Tony mocked, copying Lucas' speech marks.

"Well, Mattie mentioned that she saw him yesterday and the day before, driving home from work in a bit of a trance." Lucas said. "She said she thought he looked upset."

"Yea, well he could just be tired, that doesn't automatically mean that he was thinking of Martha. And she THINKS that he looked upset, doesn't necessarily mean that he is." Tony explained, but Lucas hadn't finished speaking.

"Well, we saw him pull up, and he really did look upset, but when he got out the car.. he was all happy." Lucas said. Tony now really started to think.

"Oh. Where is he now?" Tony asked.

"In his room." Lucas answered, Tony started to walk down the corridor towards Jack's room, Lucas followed.

"Shh" Tony said putting his finger to his lips, signalling Lucas to be quiet. Tony gently widened the gap of the ajar door slightly, so himself and Lucas could look through. Jack was laid back on his bed, one hand underneath his head, and a picture of Martha and himself in the other. His thumb gently stroked the picture as he gazed at the photo. He then heard someone near his door and slid the photo under the bed and shot up, towards his door. Tony had accidentally stood on Lucas' foot, which caused him to bang his head on the wall. They both saw Jack's reaction and ran into the room next door.

"Hello?" Jack said, walking out of his room.

"Hey mate, what you doing?" Tony said, as he and Lucas casually strolled out of Tony's room.

"Erm, just getting ready for a shower." Jack smiled. "Well, I'm gonna go carry on." He said, going back into his room and closing the door. Lucas and Tony looked at one another, they knew he was lying, but why?


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Jack walked in to work, hanging up his jacket, and walking over to his desk, to start his paperwork that was waiting for him. But today it wasn't. Confused, he went to Sergeant McGrath's office, knocked and waited at the door.

"Constable, we're just talking about you. Come in." Jack entered, standing at the edge of the desk, in-between Peter and his Sergeant. Peter smiled at him, and Jack returned the smile.

"Well, Detective Peter Baker has requested that you go undercover in another investigation in Sydney, seen as though you handled the other one with excellence. But, I'm not sure, I don't know if you are ready so soon after-"

"The cliff? I'm fine." Jack blurted out. "I'd love to go undercover again." Jack said to Peter.

"Well, that's it settled." Peter said, standing up. "Here's the plane ticket, your plane leaves in 5 hours. I'll meet you at the airport." Peter winked, passing him the tickets and leaving the office. '5 hours?' He thought. He'd have to do some real quick packing.

Jack had a hop in his step as he walked into the Holden house. For the first time since 'the cliff' he was truly happy, focusing on a case like this must mean that Martha won't be on his brain 24/7. Jack was so excited that he didn't even notice Tony and Lucas in the lounge, and walked straight by them and into his room.

He pulled the suitcase from underneath his bed, happily humming as he opened it. But his mood was drastically about to change. In the suitcase, lay Martha's clothes, the clothes that he couldn't bring himself giving away. He sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the clothes, reminding himself of Martha. He held his head in his hands. 'Should I really be doing this?' he thought to himself, 'I'm clearly not over Martha's death, so is going undercover the right thing to do?' Lucas and Tony watched on from the gap in the door, like they had done the previous day. Tony felt that it was time he did something, so he walked in and perched himself next to Jack.

"Martha's clothes." Tony sighed. "I thought you were taking them to the charity shop?"

"I couldn't bring myself to do it." He mumbled, staring at the pile of clothes. Tony put a comforting arm around his son. Jack soon realised what was happening, he was getting sympathy, AGAIN. He shuffled away from Tony and stood up, taking the clothes out of the suitcase and under the bed. Tony and Lucas both looked concerned.

"What are you doing?" Lucas enquired, Jack was now picking out clothes and throwing them into his suitcase.

"I'm going undercover, in Sydney." Jack said, not looking away from the wardrobe.

"What?" Tony and Lucas shouted in unison.

"Mate, you can't do that." Tony explained. "You're not ready, you might jeopardise the investigation. It's too soon mate." Jack swung around.

"Why can't I? Martha died, not me! I'm sick of all the sympathetic looks, the way people talk to me, I just need to get away!" Jack's voice was getting louder as his temper grew. He was now zipping up his suitcase.

"Ever heard of a holiday Jack?" Lucas suggested.

"What, so I can sit around thinking about Martha all the time, I don't think so." Jack started to pull his suitcase out to the lounge, shortly behind were Tony and Lucas.

"We know you're not taking it as well as you make out." Tony said, Jack ignored him, walking over to the fridge and getting out a carton of orange juice.

"We know about you're nightmares." Lucas blurted out. Jack stood still for a moment. Jack was still having the nightmares, it was now about 2 weeks after her death, but his nightmares had made it seem like it was just last night. After his couple of minute's hesitation, he continued in pouring himself a drink.

"What if you have the same nightmare when you're there?" Tony asked. "What will you do then mate? I think people will be wanting to know why you wake up in such a state."

"Well, it's no one else's business but mine, and I'll tell them that." Jack snapped.

"But it's our business." Tony said. "You're _my_ son, Lucas' brother, our family. The reason why everyone feels bad for you is because we _care_ for you. Shutting us out is only going to make it worse." Tony explained. "When your mum-"

"That's different!" Jack snapped. "You two were married, me and Martha, we weren't even together. For all I know she just said that she loved me, not because it was the truth, because it was what I wanted to hear." Tony and Lucas didn't know what to say. They weren't there with them at the cliff, and they hadn't seen Martha and Jack together for over a year, so they couldn't really comment. Jack sighed and looked at his watch.

"I don't want us to fall out. I don't know when I'll be back, and I'd rather not leave it like this." Jack said to both of them. Tony and Lucas felt the same, but they knew that doing this was a huge mistake for Jack. Tony reached over and hugged his eldest, then Lucas had a big squeeze, that resulted in Jack messing up his hair, and him laughing at Lucas' automatic reaction of running to the mirror.

"I still think you're making a big mistake though." Tony sighed.

"Well, I know that this will help me." Jack said. "Come on, you giving me a lift to the airport?"


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Jack was staring out his window, thoughts of Martha were disturbed when Peter spoke.

"Looking for the birdies?" Peter joked. Jack turned around and smiled.

"Sorry mate." Peter gestured over to the stewardess at the front of the aisle, she was handing out drinks whilst looking at Jack.

"I think she likes you." Peter whispered. "She hasn't managed to take her eyes off you for a minute ever since she came out with the trolley." Peter laughed. Jack looked over at her, he couldn't even think about being with another woman right now, not with Martha still on the brain. "She's quite nice Jack." Peter nudged him. "You should go for it." He winked. Jack gave a friendly smile and turned back around to face the window, and to resume with his thoughts of Martha. Peter sighed. He knew that Jack was still going to be a little upset, but he didn't think he'd be acting like this.

"Come on mate, you two weren't even together. She was engaged to someone else!" Peter couldn't help but saying it, Jack was turning to be a real bore for him. Jack turned around sharply. He couldn't believe what Peter had just said.

"She'd told Dave that she didn't want to go ahead with it, she called the wedding off." Jack got out of his seat and walked past Peter. "Going to the loo." He muttered. He didn't need Peter talking about the fact that him and Martha weren't together, and that she might not even have loved him, it was already taking over his thoughts. There was nothing more he regretted than not telling Martha earlier, maybe things would have been different, maybe her response would have been different. He couldn't help thinking that the situation they were in could have influenced her reply, and if it was true, then he was making a very big fool of himself, and clinging onto a lie. He had walked way past the toilets, and was now near the front of the plane. He sighed and started walking back to his seat, he hadn't really needed the loo, just a walk. On his way back, he was again distracted by his thoughts and he bumped into a stewardess.

"Sorry.." He said, looking up at the stewardess. 'It's the same one that's been looking at me.' Jack thought. He looked at her. She had a very pretty smile, and big wide eyes.

"Hey" She smiled. "It's okay." Jack didn't know what to say, so he just smiled. "My name is Alice." She said, putting out her hand, smiling.

"Jack." He shook her hand.

"So do you live in Sydney?" She asked, making friendly conversation.

"Erm, no, I'm going on business. How about you?"

"Nah, I'm going on business too!" She laughed. "It's kinda my job. So what do you do?" She enquired.

"I'm a cop." He said. Fortunately, their conversation had to be drawn to an end due to Alice's duties.

"I'm sorry, I know this may seem weird, and I honestly don't normally do this, but can I give you my number?" Jack looked shocked. He hadn't been given a number in, ages! He hadn't normally let a girl get this far. When he noticed someone checking him out, which was quite regularly due to obvious reasons, he would normally find an excuse to leave the situation, or hint majorly that he wasn't interested in the most polite way, but this time he found himself smiling, ready to accept the number.

Jack sat down next to Peter, feeling guilty about the woman's number in his pocket. He wasn't going to ring her, so why had he accepted the number? He knew that he should move on from Martha, after all he wasn't even sure if she'd felt the same way, but having Alice's number in his pocket made him feel guilty. Jack decided that it was best to make conversation with Peter, as he didn't want these thoughts continuing to round his mind.

"So, what's going on with this investigation?" Jack asked.

"Well, we're not completely sure." Peter explained. "We've had some reports that some people are being kidnapped and held against their will at a large house in Sydney. The person who reported this lived in the house, helping out with the controlling of the guests. We didn't have chance to ask the man a lot of questions, as he was murdered a few days after he came to the police station. So you better watch out, the leader, Trevor, could be a very dangerous man." Jack nodded.

"So, what do you want me to do, just find out stuff?" Jack asked.

"Yes, your first priority is to find out why he does this, and then to make sure that the guests are okay. According to the witness, they don't usually plan to harm them, however Trevor has recently talked about taking different actions towards their newest guest." Jack nodded as he listened to his schedule for the next few weeks.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Hey. Name's Jack Phillips, and I heard that you rent out rooms?" Jack stood there with his hand out and his suitcase by his feet at the door of a large house, about a mile from the busy roads of Sydney. Trevor looked Jack up and down.

"Come in." He said, walking back into the house, leaving Jack's hand in mid-air. Jack sighed. 'Look's like this is going to be a bit harder than the first then' he thought as he picked his suitcase up and went in, shutting the door behind him.

"Wow!" Jack exclaimed. "Nice house." His voice echoed around the massive entrance, up the two wooden staircases that lead to the equally grand landing. He walked around in amazement as he took in the beautiful décor. It was all very traditional, the oak floor, cabinets, stairs, doors there was definitely a theme going on there.

"So, I'll show you to your room them." Trevor said, walking Jack up the stairs and down one of the many corridors. Jack tried to take note of how many doors his was passing. '4 maybe 5?' he thought. Trevor unlocked the door at the end, Jack's new room. It was huge! There was everything you could imagine that would be in a bedroom, and more! But the main thing that Jack was focussing on right now, was his bed. The king-size bed, fully equipped with 4 fluffy, feather pillows that was just dying to be jumped on, or so Jack thought.

"Well, the room will cost you $200 a week." Jack's jaw dropped. "But, this price can be lowered to.. $100, if you help me out that is." Trevor grinned at his irresistible offer. 'Ahh, so that's how he gets people to work for him.' Jack thought. 'No one can possibly afford to pay $200 a week if they don't have enough to buy their own home'

"What do you want helping with?" Jack asked. Trevor smiled at this question.

"Walk this way." Trevor started to walk back down the corridor. Jack turned around to look at the luxurious bed once more, and moaned as he was forced to walk away from it.

On the way, Jack made small talk, searching for something that he could use to bond with Trevor, but with no luck. Trevor wasn't the friendliest of guys, and certainly didn't appreciate Jack's attempt to form a friendship. Trevor liked silence, good, pure silence, and didn't want that to be interrupted unless it was completely necessary. They eventually got to the metal door, which Trevor slowly unlocked. Jack looked around. This was the first metal door he'd seen in the house, it broke the pattern of oak doors that were on all surrounding walls. 'This room must be pretty special.' Jack thought, as he anxiously waited to see what was inside. Trevor opened the door wide, to reveal a shockingly white room. Jack walked in. He hadn't been here before, he knew that, but it did seem very familiar. There was a grey sofa that faced a large, rectangular window on the opposite side. Jack looked closely through the window. It wasn't like normal windows, there were no picturesque scenery on the other side, as he'd expected too see as he remembered the lovely land that the house was situated in. There was just another room, an empty, white room. Jack looked bemused. 'What is it?' He thought. Trevor walked over to a metal plaque, mounted on the wall beside the large window. He flicked a switch, which started a large mechanical noise to purr over Jack's head. He moved from his spot, just dodging a large, flat screen television that was now hanging from the ceiling. Trevor picked up a remote from beside the sofa and started to flick through the channels. There weren't any of his usual programmes on though, just images of empty rooms, that was until he'd flicked stations about 5 times, when he got to a room with many beds, and four people inside, talking to one another. Jack stood in amazement. 'That's them' he thought, but he was distracted when Trevor started to talk to them.

"As you may have guessed, they aren't aware that we're watching, and they haven't really asked to be guests here. I'm not out to hurt them, well most of them. That's why I need your help." He explained.

"What do you want me to do?" Jack asked.

"Well, I need you to monitor this room, ensure that nothing sneaky is going on, especially with the pretty woman with dark hair, she's a trouble causer, the newest angel." Jack nodded, trying to take this all in and make sense of it. If she was the newest, then that must mean that she's the one that Trevor is contemplating taking physical action against, perhaps because she's a trouble causer. Jack's thoughts were interrupted.

"This is also why I want you to slip in to their room, at night, and inject her with a drug, it will calm her down. If this doesn't work then my only other option is.." Trevor stopped talking. "Well, let's just see if this works." He said, starting to leave the room. "They will be in next doors room very shortly, if you have any problems or see anything suspicious, let me know." He said, pointing to the phone. Jack nodded as Trevor shut the door. He thought back in his head what he had been told. "So Trevor wanted someone to keep an eye on them, especially the last angel-" Jack paused. "Angel? Maybe it's just a pet name." He mumbled to himself. "After all, he is pretty damn crazy.." He watched as the door slowly opened, and the four prisoners walked in and sat down on the beanbags.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Jack got up and drew the roller chair closer to the window and the speakers that were picking up the sound from their conversations. He looked at the four. 'No visible injuries or abuse.' He thought, looking around for the "trouble causer", he then realised that she was the one with her back facing him. They were all wearing the same colour clothes. White. They then began to speak.

"Are you okay?" Christie asked Martha, who was now laid down on her beanbag, clearly upset. She shook her head. "Want to talk about it?" She asked. Callum then gently hit Christie on the shoulder.

"She probably doesn't" Callum said, answering Martha's question. Martha than sat up straight, looking at her 3 new friends.

"You know what, I'm going to." They all looked surprised. They'd asked her many times before, but she had refused to tell. "I think that I've tried to avoid this conversation for long enough, and keeping it bottled up inside isn't doing me much good." She explained. Callum, Christie and Ryan sat around her, all eagerly awaiting her next sentence. "As you know, I didn't jump off the cliff, I was pushed." All three nodded in unison. "Well, I was pushed by an evil woman, called Jenny. She's crazy, like... a delusional psychopath! She'd convinced herself that she was together with this guy, and seeing us together drove her insane with jealousy. She abducted me and took me to the cliff, where he arrived shortly after, and tried to help me. I'd just run away from my wedding, from a man who I'd only agreed to marry because of the mixed feelings I'd been feeling at that moment. I know, it was a horrible thing to do, but he wasn't a nice man. He'd beat me regularly, and that only stopped because my old boyfriend, Jack, arrived. Jack was also the one up on the cliff with me, the one that Jenny was madly in love with." Martha sighed, putting her hand to her head. "Sorry about this, thinking about him 24/7 is a lot to handle, but I didn't realise talking about him would be worse." Callum put a comforting arm around her.

"So, why did you say yes to the guys proposal?" Ryan asked.

"His name's Dave, and I did because, I was jealous. Jack hadn't come home after his date with Jenny, and I was very upset and angry. When Dave bent down on one knee, it was like… he was the only person who cared for me. So I accepted, thinking that no one else would ever do this, certainly not Jack, as he was too busy with Jenny." She sighed, fiddling with the frayed edge of her white top. "When I told Dave, the day of our wedding, that I couldn't marry him, he lashed out again. But Jack wasn't there, he wasn't there to protect me, nor was he there to comfort me and to assure me that everything was alright, because of the way I'd treated him." Martha took a deep breath. "When Jenny took me to the cliff, I thought my life was over, but when she said that Jack was coming, half of me was pleased that he would be there, as I knew he could save me, but half of me was worried that he may get hurt. When he got there, he'd forgotten how badly I treated him, and just tried to protect me. Jenny tried to shoot me, but Jack dived in front of me, taking the bullet, and along with it… his life. He then lay there, bleeding to death in my arms as he told me he loved me. I couldn't believe it. How stupid I'd been for not telling him my feelings earlier, we could have spared it all, but no, stubborn Martha said nothing. He then continued to save my life, by shooting Jenny when she attempted to kill me. He hadn't killed her or anything, just made sure that she wasn't going to hurt me, when he wasn't there to protect me." Martha stood up and walked towards the back wall and leant against it. Her eyes started to fill with tears. "I begged him not to go, I told him I loved him and pleaded with him to stay awake, but before I knew it, he was gone." Tears started to stream down her cheeks. "I was furious at Jenny, what she'd done. You couldn't have found a nicer guy than Jack in this whole universe. Funny, smart, caring, a great cop and so many other things. I couldn't wait until she got what she deserved for taking such a perfect man out of the world. I stormed over to her, shouting at her for what she'd done, but she acted upset, as if she'd lost something as dear as I'd lost. Before I knew it, an evil look came on her face, and her legs swung into mine, knocking me off the cliff. I hadn't realised I was so close to the edge… I guess it was because I couldn't stop thinking about Jack… but I had been very close, and was easily knocked off. I then remember just waking up in the house, and then being pushed into here." She explained. "The worst thing isn't coming in here, it's not being able to lock Jenny up for what she did. I can't stop the nightmares of Jack dying in my arms, the look on his face, the pain and the agony. I wanted to make it all go away, but I couldn't. I was forced to watch him die; because of me." She slid down the wall, bursting into tears. "I loved him so much! I never stopped loving him since I met him, and when I finally told him... he had to go." Martha's voice faded away into her sobs. Callum, Christie and Ryan sat in shock for a moment, before running over and comforting her.

Meanwhile, Jack was in the other room, gazing through the window. He was feeling a mixture of feelings, disbelief, joy and bewilderment. How was she alive? He could have danced right there in his seat with happiness! "She's alive!" He shouted. But his happy mood started to fade as he watched the tears run down her cheeks.

"She thinks I'm dead.." He muttered. He was right, she did think he was dead, and she was feeling just as bad as he'd done, before he made his discovery a few minutes ago. He couldn't take his eyes off her, he'd never thought in a million years that he'd see her walking, talking, and breathing again. He kept repeating her sentence in his head. "I loved him so much!" Every time it rang around his brain, a little smile sneaked out onto his face. "She hadn't just said it because of the situation," he said, "she really meant it!"


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Jack was still smiling to himself when he realised that someone had now opened the door in the room, telling them they had to go to bed. He looked at his watch. 'It's only 10.30' he thought. But he still flicked with the remote, going onto the camera in the bedroom. At first, he couldn't take his eyes off Martha, sitting down on a mattress with her head in her hands, then he realised that he should look away, just for a while, as it seemed quite creepy to be watching them.

After 10 minutes, Jack returned his gaze to the screen, watching Callum, Christie, Martha and Jack lying in their beds, talking to one another.

"I'm really sorry Martha." Christie said, reaching over and touching her new friends arm. "I don't know what else to say." Martha turned over and smiled at her.

"Thanks." She mumbled.

"So, is this why you've been so quiet and miserable for the last month?" Callum asked. Martha turned to her left, where Callum was laid.

"Yes, although I wasn't talking about him, I was thinking about him. I really miss him, we weren't even together at the time."

"You make it sound like you had been together before."

"Yea, we had. About, a year and 3 months now. We split up because of a stupid argument, and then I got together with his work partner, Corey. I only did it to make Jack jealous, I regret it now, but at the time it got me through our break up. Anyway, Corey turned out to be a right freak, he moved from town to town, killing the jury members that sentenced his dad to prison-"

"Oh! I read about that." Ryan said. "Yea, using mercury to poison them, sending them wappy, and he then gave them a lethal dosage to kill them." Martha nodded.

"I was supposed to be moving away with him, but I found out just in the nick of time, and rang Jack, who came to my rescue. Corey tried to kill me, he had me in a headlock, slowly strangling me, and I couldn't get over it for months."

"Oh my gosh! How did you get over it?" Christie said with her hand on her neck, thinking about the strangling.

"Jack. He helped me through it."

"Wow, he sounds like a really nice guy" Christie smiled.

"Well, he is, most of the time." Christie, Callum, Ryan and Jack were all very involved now. Martha had been singing his praises for the last hour, and now, here she was, saying that the worlds perfect man had faults. "When I left Summer Bay, me and Jack had fallen out, due to my mistake of buying a gun." The three of them gasped. "Don't worry, I wasn't going to use it or anything, I was just still freaked out about Corey. Anyway, when he found out, and the gun went missing he got mad at me. I was very upset, and angry too, the one thing I wanted to do was get over Jack-"

"So you loved him then?" Christie asked. "Even though you'd broken up, and then fallen out?"

"Yea… quite stupid really, but I did. Anyway, my friend Claire offered me a place in the city, and at first I declined, part of me didn't want to leave him, but she managed to persuade me, so I eventually said yes. Jack and me still weren't talking, therefore I couldn't talk to him about leaving, even though I really wanted to. However, he obviously didn't want to, as he never asked me to stay or anything, he still continued to ignore me. He must have known, Summer Bay is a very close community, so word would have gone around fast that Alf's granddaughter was leaving. Anyway, I finally decided to swallow my pride, and talk to him about it. I sent him a text, asking him to meet up with me so we could talk, but he ignored it."

"He must be an idiot, who in their right mind would do that to such a wonderful woman as you?" Callum said, picking up her hand and holding it. Christie and Ryan looked at one another.

"Oh my god!" Christie mouthed out. Ryan nodded. Martha hadn't noticed the obvious fact that Callum fancied her and just thought he was being friendly, so she didn't let go from his hand. Jack had stood up by this point, unable to believe what he was seeing. He was fuming! He wanted to go in there and get Callum, but he couldn't. 'Calm down Jack' he thought, 'they're only being friendly.' He sat down, breathing in deeply, when it occurred to him what his second job was. Drugging Martha.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

He slowly tiptoed in the room. He'd already checked that everyone was asleep before coming in, by watching the monitor, but he didn't want to wake anyone up. He cautiously crept over to the side of Martha's mattress, and bent down next to it. He looked at Callum's smug face. Jack didn't like him one bit, mainly because of him hitting on Martha. He looked down to his shoulder, and then followed his arm to get to his hand, which was reached out on top of Martha's! Jack cursed as he gently peeled Callum's hand off hers, and placed it back to Callum's side. For the short moment Jack had hold of Callum's wrist, he had used all his strength not to give him a Chinese burn.

He looked at Martha, sleeping peacefully. He sat down next to her, admiring her beauty and thanking god that she was still alive. He soon snapped out of his daydream when he looked at the syringe he had in his hand. He had to do it; he had no option. Trevor was probably watching him right now, and if he didn't do it, Trevor would get very suspicious and Jack had no idea what he'd do. The only thing he knew was that the operation would go down the drain, and then he wouldn't be able to free the four prisoners, including Martha. He gently moved the covers down, revealing her arms. They looked different from the last time he saw them, there were no bruises. He swallowed hard and added pressure to the syringe, piercing her delicate skin. He sighed as he gently removed the needle from her arm and raised the covers back up. He didn't like to leave her, especially with Callum, but he knew he had to, to get her back. He stood up, and started to quietly walk away.

"Jack!" Martha whispered. Jack sharply turned around. 'Damn.' He thought, but he was also quite pleased that Martha now knew it was he, and that he was alive. He looked at her, expecting her to be sat up and looking at him, but she was still laid down. The room was now silent again. 'Weird' he thought, and started to turn back around towards the door, when her breathing started to become loud and heavy, and she started to fidget. Jack watched on as Martha's sleeping body was clearly distressed and upset, tears ran down her face and she tossed and turned to either side. Jack forgot about the cameras and ran to Martha's side. 'It isn't the drugs is it?' he begged. She began to speak.

"Jack! No! You dare! Please, Jack just stay awake and it'll all be fine! I love you!" Jack sighed in relief; she was having a nightmare. Not that it was a good thing, he'd experienced many nightmares recently, starring Martha, and knew how petrifying they can be. He knelt back by her side, holding her hand. Martha began to stir.

"Jack?" She said, wiping the tears away from her face.

"Shh." He said, stroking her hair. And with that, she fell to sleep. Maybe it was the shock of seeing him alive, or maybe it was the drug, he wasn't sure, but it was very convenient for him as he could now exit the room.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Jack finally got into the bed that he'd been waiting to snuggle up in for hours. It was just as comfy as it looked, and within seconds he fell to sleep. For the first time since 'the cliff' he had pleasant, peaceful dreams, not nightmares. Martha was the same, as soon as she dozed back to sleep, her nightmares vanished.

In the morning, Jack woke up at the crack of dawn, to get on with his job. He got showered, in his on-suite, and then had breakfast. He text Peter, updating him on the progress, and then sat in the room watching them all wake up. Everyone apart from Martha. Callum, Ryan and Christie all looked at her as they sat up yawning. Ryan went to scare her but Christie held him back.

"Shh! She hasn't had a good sleep in ages! It's the first time that she hasn't had a nightmare to wake her up." Christie said. "Let's leave her as long as possible." Callum and Ryan nodded and then silently got up and got dressed into their matching white outfits. As Callum was moving around the room, he hadn't taken his eyes of Martha. Ryan, Christie and Jack noticed this and unlike Ryan and Christie, Jack couldn't do or say anything, he just had to watch on helplessly as Callum stared at Martha. Christie and Ryan decided to interrupt his gaze by standing in front of her, making a subtle hint that they didn't agree with what he was doing. Callum snapped out of it and carried on casually making his bed.

Jack was growing increasingly worried when Martha didn't wake up hours later. Sure, she liked her lay-ins, but by the things the others had been saying, she never usually stayed in bed this late, which made him wonder if it was the drugs. At around 11 o'clock, Christie was forced to wake her up, when Callum and Ryan had exited.

"Martha?" Christie said, gently shaking her shoulders. "Wakey-wakey!" Martha's eyes slowly opened.

"What time is it?" She asked, rubbing her eyes.

"11 o'clock!" Christie laughed. "I wish I could get that much sleep!" Martha smiled.

"Wow. I've been asleep ages!" Martha sat up in her bed.

"It seems to me like you didn't have any nightmares"

"Guess not." Martha paused. "Oh wait, I did. I had one earlier, but I woke up and…" Martha gasped. "I'm going crazy." She fell back onto her bed, face down into the pillow. Christie laughed.

"What are you on about now?"

"Well, I know this is going to sound stupid but… Jack was there. I woke up, and Jack was there, holding my hand." Christie sighed.

"Martha, he can't have been, he's…"

"Dead. I know! But, he really was there; you have to believe me Christie. I held his hand… I touched him! You can't dream about that!" Christie thought for a moment.

"Oh, I know what it'll be. Callum had his hand on yours when you fell asleep, so your mind probably interpreted it to be Jack's hand, to fit in with your dream." Martha looked confused.

"Why the hell was Callum holding my hand?" Christie began to give an answer when something else dawned on Martha. "You said he had his hand on mine, but I was _holding_ Jack's in the dream, and he was sat by my side and… he stroked my hair!" Martha exclaimed, running her fingers through her hair. "You have to believe me Christie, he was here!" Martha pleaded. Christie let out a long sigh.

"Dreams can seem so realistic sometimes, I can wake up confused at where the fit bloke who's buying me a beer has gone!" Christie chuckled, but Martha was too busy thinking about what had happened. She was so sure that it wasn't just a dream, she'd really felt it, it was just too realistic to be a dream.

"Maybe…" Martha said, getting up and dressed. 'Maybe it was a dream' Martha thought. After Martha had got dressed, she walked into the white, plain room to join her friends.

"God I'm so tired." Martha yawned.

"How can you be tired? You had loads of sleep! At one point I thought you might be hibernating!" Everyone laughed.

"Yea, well, I'm not usually this tired, sure I love my sleep, but not this much." She said, letting her head sink into the beanbag. "I've got a bit of a headache too."

"Hmm, maybe your down with something." Callum said, worry across his face. "Have you been feeling sick at all?" Martha started to fidget.

"Well, when I was getting dressed I had to have a quick stop off in the loo, I kind of was sick a little bit.." She mumbled. Callum checked her forehead.

"Hmm, seems fine to me." He said.

"I'm gonna be sick!" Martha said, hand over her mouth and running out the room. Ryan pulled a face.

"Uh-oh" He laughed. "What's up with you?" Ryan asked, responding to Callum's shocked expression.

"I think Martha's pregnant." Callum announced. Ryan and Christie adopted the same ghost-like complexion.

"Oh my god." Christie muttered.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Jack stared at the monitor, this could not be happening. "Martha had refused to sleep with Dave, so the only other explanation for her being pregnant with his baby is…" Jack stormed out of the room and out of the house, in the direction of the Sydney Prison.

"For what do I owe this great pleasure Constable?" Dave said, sarcastically. Jack sat down opposite him, in the private interview booth. He looked at Dave's smirk, trying to stay calm, and trying not to jump up at that moment and lash out. He breathed heavily as he held himself back.

"Did you and Martha ever…?" Jack asked. Dave laughed.

"No. I told you that, she didn't want to, she was a Christian."

"Okay, I'm not asking if she wanted to." Dave looked at him, shocked.

"What are you implying?" He said, angrily. Jack looked at him, he didn't need to say anything as it was clear what he meant. "No. I didn't." Dave said. This got Jack angry.

"Just admit it!" He said, his voice clearly displaying his anger. Dave smiled.

"Nope, I did nothing." Jack couldn't keep staring at his lying, smug face any longer. He jumped out of his seat and grabbed Dave by his shirt, pulling him off his chair and against the wall.

"Admit it!" He yelled. Dave remained smiling.

"I'm not admitting to anything I haven't done."

"I'm not letting you get away with this." He threatened, letting go of Dave's shirt and stepping back. Dave stood there, his smile was still intact.

"Careful Constable, that sounded like a threat to me." Dave gloated. Jack stormed out of the room. "Thanks for the visit!" Dave shouted.

Martha walked back in the quiet, white room and sat down.

"I feel better now." She sighed, smiling. "Gee guys, don't worry about me! Only a little sick!" She said, looking at all 3 of their faces. They looked at one another, then back at Martha.

"Martha, I don't want to alarm you, but could you be pregnant?" Callum said, Christie put her arm around Martha.

"Hell no!" She giggled. Callum, Christie and Ryan gave a sigh of relief. "That's why you all looked like ghosts when I walked in, isn't it?" She laughed. "You're all fools!" She said, playfully messing up Ryan's hair.

"Oh really? Lets see about that!" Ryan said, playfully punching her. "Seen as though you're not pregnant, I can totally thrash you on the play station!" He smiled.

"Bring it on!" She laughed, running into the lounge with Ryan.

"Kids, eh?" Christie chuckled, standing up and walking into the next room to join the giddy pair.

Jack was walking aimlessly around the busy roads of Sydney. Why had he gone and done that? Even if Dave had admitted it, what good would it have done? Now he'd gone and made it a whole lot worse, Dave was probably going to report this. What made him more angry was that he had never lost his cool like this before, and now he'd gone and done it to a man that he knew would get the biggest kick out of getting him in trouble! He decided to return to the house and go and see how Martha was.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

For a week Jack was instructed to drug Martha, he tried to explain that it could harm the baby, but Trevor was having none of it, and made Jack do it. For the first 6 days Jack had only injected a few of droplets into Martha's arm, which he achieved by sneakily emptying most of it out into his coffee cup, or anywhere he could find, then acting as if he was injecting the full dosage. However, on the last day of the week, Trevor came in with him and sat by his side as Jack injected it. Jack emptied as much as he could get away with, but he still had a fairly large dosage left in the syringe. He tried as many things as he could think of, but none worked, he was forced to inject it into Martha's sleeping body. Sure, it wasn't enough to kill her or harm the baby, but he still didn't like the idea that a few droplets of drugs were running through her blood stream, let alone a small dosage.

Although she wasn't pregnant, Martha's sickness, tiredness and headaches persisted, along with Callum's worry. He didn't want to alarm her, so he pretended as if it was probably a virus, even though he knew it was strange that no one else had got it, but Martha. Martha was oblivious to the worry Callum felt, and just got on with it, thinking that it'd soon pass over a few weeks.

The next morning, Jack got a phone call off Peter, taking him off the case.

"What?" Jack asked. "Why?"

"Dave Hutchinson." That's all Peter needed to say, that 4-syllable name answered all of Jack's questions.

"Right." Jack sighed angrily. "But I can't, I need to stay here, why take me off the case? I'm working fine, Trevor trusts me now, I could be wrapping this up in a matter of days!" Jack pleaded.

"Nope, you're not allowed to work undercover for the police if you're suspended from your duties."

"What?" Jack asked, shocked.

"Oh, sorry mate, my bad." Peter coughed, collecting a more serious tone. "Constable, you are suspended pending an investigation." The phone went silent.

"But I can't leave Martha." Jack muttered.

"Mate, you're not, she's gone."

"No! She's not, listen, I didn't want to say anything because I knew you'd take me off the case for being too emotionally involved, but.."

"Well?"

"Martha's one of the four that are being held here." Jack explained. "I know it's crazy, but it's wonderful at the same time. She's alive Peter! And I need to make sure she'll get out of the investigation safe this time!" Pleaded Jack. Peter sighed. "Come on mate, she is not in Trevor's good books… I can't lose her again." The silence repeated as Peter thought for a moment.

"You've been suspended, you are not allowed to work in a police investigation, sorry mate, it's the law."

"But-" Peter interrupted Jack's plea.

"However, if you were to be captured by this Trevor, and held there amongst the other prisoners and then tried to fight your way out, then that's nothing to do with me…" Peter said, sneakily. Jack was ecstatic.

"Thanks mate!"

"For what?" Peter laughed. "Good luck Constable." 'Hmm, how am I going to do this then' Jack thought, but he knew exactly what he had to do, he just wasn't going to enjoy it.

Jack stood at the top of the cliff. He walked around the land, staring at the surroundings. He carefully looked at the ground and knelt down, gently brushing over the blood stained sandy rock. He looked to his left. 'That's where Martha would have been.' He thought, and slowly walked over towards the spot. He swallowed hard as he peered over the edge at the sharp, violent drop. He was risking his life to do this, he wasn't sure if Trevor was there watching, if he would catch him, after all, Jack was only aware of the people he caught, not of the people he missed. Even though he was scared that he might not be caught, not once did he think of not jumping. He had to do it, to save Martha and her baby. He took a steady breath, and closed his eyes. This was it, his life was in the balance, his life depended on a crazy man with a net, but he was willing to bet it all for Martha. With that final thought, he jumped. His body plunged downwards, towards the crashing waves, towards the rocks, towards his death. All he could think about was how long it was taking him to be caught, how long had he actually been falling? Too long.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Jack awoke to the sound of silence. Ear aching silence. He blinked a few times before rising up from his bed made of beanbags. White beanbags. He looked around at his strange surroundings. White walls, white carpet, and a metal door. If Jack hadn't have been watching this room for a week, he would have thought that he'd now died. But because he hadn't, it was obvious to him that he was very much alive, and he was now, very happy. The metal door swung open, revealing a tall, scruffy man, with a very angry looking expression on his face.

"Trevor!" Jack smiled, unfortunately he didn't get quite the friendliest reply as he'd hoped for.

"Why did you fall from the sky?" Trevor demanded. "You're no angel." Jack thought quick on his feet.

"How dare you!" Jack gasped. "Trevor, I don't think my fellow angels will appreciate that talk! I am an angel! I just wanted to meet you in person, you know, to get to know you, instead of just being saved and never really meeting the real Trevor." Jack beamed. 'What am I saying?' he thought 'I hope he's buying it.' Luckily for Jack, he was. Trevor blushed as he left the room.

"Well, the others will be here shortly, you're much more appreciative than they have ever been!" Before Trevor could leave, Jack had an idea.

"Oh, by the way, there's an arrival due within the next two hours!" Jack hinted. Trevor nodded as he shut the door. Jack let out a big sigh of relief as he fell back onto the beanbags. 'Now all I've got to do is tell Martha to act as if she doesn't know me. Then I can work a way out of here in a few days.' Jack thought. He smiled at the thought of what he'd just said.

"Tell Martha…" He repeated aloud, it was only a few weeks ago that he never thought he'd be telling Martha anything ever again! His thoughts were interrupted by the door opening, and 3 hungry people walking in.

"Oh! A new friend!" Christie squealed, running over to Jack. Callum and Ryan strolled over to him, anxious to meet their new roomy.

"Where's Martha?" Jack whispered to them. They all looked as shocked as each other. "Where is she?" He repeated.

"Erm, she's resting, how the hell do you know she's here?" Callum demanded.

"Are you going to help us?" Christie asked, excitedly.

"Please, just take me to her then I'll explain to all of you, okay?" Jack pleaded. Callum nodded.

"She's this way." He said, getting up. Jack followed him through the living room and into the bedroom, where she was laid on her mattress. Jack dived to the ground by Martha's side and held her hand.

"Martha, Martha it's me." He whispered, gently squeezing her hand. He admired her beauty as she lay there peacefully sleeping, something which he hadn't watched her do in a very long time, well not up close anyway. He sat silently, seeing if he could hear the occasional, faint snore that he found so cute. He leant closer. He could hear nothing, apart from very slow, light breathing. She looked so perfect lying there, he couldn't wait and needed to wake her up now so he could hold her again, like he'd wanted to do for over a year, but never got given the chance. He leant down closer to her face, with the motive to kiss her cheek, when a furious Callum pulled him away.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Callum shouted, enraged with jealousy. "Get off Martha, she's mine!" He added. Christie and Ryan sat in shock, never in their months of knowing Callum had they witnessed him acting like this. They'd also no idea of why Callum had said that Martha was his, as she clearly was not.

"What are you talking about?" Ryan questioned. "You know for damn well that Martha's still hung up on dead Jack, just because you fancy the socks of her doesn't mean she feels the same way!" Ryan said bluntly. Callum looked rather hurt at this outburst, and also quite embarrassed that his feelings for Martha had now been shared.

"Well, what gives him the right to swan in here and kiss her either? He's no dead Jack!" Callum argued.

"Oh, but I am." Jack smiled. Christie looked in amazement at him.

"Oh my god!" she squealed, hugging him. "She'll be so happy! I'm so happy! I've heard so much about you!" Jack laughed.

"Thanks. Nice to meet you by the way." He smiled at her as she pulled away.

"And there's that Jack Holden smile!" She said, pointing at him. Jack laughed.

"Now if I have your permission to wake up Marth-" Jack stopped talking and spun around to the sleeping Martha. "Why didn't she wake up!" He demanded. "We were all shouting, and she didn't wake up!" Jack shouted, his voice full of worry.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Callum hopped over to Martha's other side.

"Martha can you hear me?" He asked, shaking her shoulders. "Martha?" He checked her pulse, and then hovered his hand over her mouth. "Well she's still breathing… just." Jack sat stunned, 'how can this be happening?' he thought to himself.

"We need to get her to a hospital." Callum declared.

"How the hell do you suggest we do that?" Ryan asked. "Should we just politely knock on the door and ask Uncle Trevor if he'll take her to the hospital?" Ryan said, sarcastically. Jack stood up and put his hands behind his head, not taking his gaze of Martha.

"That wouldn't work anyway, Trevor's not even here, he's at the cliff." He said.

"Oh my god what are we going to do?" Christie cried, stroking Martha's hair. Jack watched on as Callum's worry on his face dramatically worsened.

"She's stopped breathing." Callum announced, before starting CPR on her immediately. Jack's face dropped.

"Martha! No!" He pleaded. Jack frantically looked around. "We're getting her to a hospital now!" Jack shouted. "Ryan, come with me." They both ran into the lounge, where Jack indicated Ryan to pick up a chair and to follow him into the next room. Jack ran up to the large mirror on the side of the wall.

"How the hell is smashing a mirror going to do any good?"

"It's not a mirror, it's a one-way window, now help me smash it!" Jack ordered. They both began to hit the glass with their full force, but the only damage they managed to inflict was a few cracks and chips.

"Martha is breathing again!" Christie screamed. "Quick guys, we need to get her to the hospital!" Jack took a deep breath in and gathered his strength for one big hit. The window smashed, revealing the other room.

"Make sure there's a big enough gap for us to get through without cutting ourselves!" Jack yelled to Ryan, pointing at the window, then ran into the bedroom. "We've got through, common let's take Martha." Jack said, kneeling beside her and scooping her up in his arms.

"Careful! Don't bang her head!" Callum nearly screamed. Jack gave him a look.

"Oh, you're joking! You ruin all my fun." Jack muttered, earning a snigger from Christie. He spun back around and carried on walking briskly to the broken window. When he got to the window he passed her to Callum whilst he climbed over, then gestured for him to pass her back. Callum shook his head.

"How do we know you're Jack, you could just be Trevor's friend for all we know." Jack couldn't believe what Callum was doing.

"Just pass her here! We haven't got time for this!" Jack shouted, Callum remained holding Martha. "She'll die if you carry on! Is that what you want?" Jack yelled. Callum slowly shook his head and handed Martha over to Jack. Christie and Ryan both gave Callum a look of disappointment; his jealousy had just put Martha's life on the line. Jack kicked at the door.

"It's unlocked." He said surprised, and ran through the house towards the grand entrance.

"Wow…" Christie said in awe. "What a gorgeous house." Jack stopped suddenly and walked towards a small table in the corridor.

"Can you bring those keys please?" Jack asked Christie.

"Sure." She said, picking them up and following Jack outside. He gestured to the car.

"Christie can you open the back door?" Jack asked, Christie looked at him shocked, then back at the car.

"You're not seriously going to drive are you?" Jack nodded in response. "But, it's not your car! And look at it, I'll be surprised if it gets off the drive!"

"Well, it's all we've got, and I'm sure our friend Trevor won't be needing it in jail." Jack smiled, and gestured again for the door to be opened. He rested Martha's body on the back seat, and Christie then went to sit in with her, to hold her head.

"Hang on!" A voice shouted. "I'll sit in the back with her, make sure she's okay." Callum said, running up. "I am a doctor after all, it can't do any harm." Christie and Jack agreed and both sat in the front of the car.

"Hey, what about me?" Ryan asked. "I ain't waiting for Trevor to come back!" He exclaimed. Christie thought for a moment.

"Get in the boot." She ordered.

"What? You get in the boot!" Ryan argued.

"I'm not the one without a seat!" Christie gloated.

"Fine.." Ryan muttered, hopping in the boot. Jack started the car and sped off.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Throughout the journey, Jack frequently looked through his mirror to the back seat, where Martha lay on Callum's lap. He wasn't sure if the reason why he kept staring back was to check on Martha, or to keep an eye on Callum. He was stroking her hair gently and talking to her. No matter how hard Jack tried, he couldn't catch what Callum was saying, which annoyed him. He knew that Martha loved him, but he wasn't sure if she had any feelings towards Callum. After all, they'd been together for about a month now, 24/7, and she thought Jack was dead. Jack couldn't help but feel a little bit jealous; he should be with her at the back of the car now, looking after her, not him. 'He's a doctor, he can look after her better than I can' this thought repeating in his mind kept him sane throughout the long journey. Christie noticed the looks that Jack had been giving Martha and Callum, and she could tell what he was thinking.

"She really loves you." She whispered, disturbing Jack from his gaze.

"What?" He asked. She gave him the 'don't act as if you don't know' look. "Thanks." He smiled. "But just look-"

"Were you listening to what I said? She loves YOU. She'll be completely thrilled when she finds out you're alive." Jack smiled.

"She better be!" He laughed, his eyes rolled back onto the mirror and onto Martha. "If she finds out.." he mumbled to himself.

Jack ran into the hospital with Martha's lifeless body in his arms.

"HELP!" He shouted out as he entered the Accident and Emergency room, and was assisted by a doctor and a trolley. Jack placed Martha on the trolley and watched in despair as the doctor started to check her over, for breathing, circulation etc.

"What happened?" He asked Jack.

"She was unconscious and then her heart stopped, I did CPR for about a minute or two, and her heart hasn't stopped beating since." Callum answered.

"Right, okay you guys are going to have to wait here, I'll come back with more news." The doctor ordered, briskly rolling Martha away with a team of nurses.

It was the slowest hour that Jack had ever experienced, he watched the hallway, awaiting the doctor to come through and tell him that everything was going to be okay. But he didn't. Not for a whole hour. During that hour Jack had changed seats at least 15 times, drank 7 cups of coffee, and had several failed attempts of begging the nurses for information. Finally, the sight that he'd been praying to see occurred, the doctor walked up the corridor. Everyone jumped up from their seats.

"Hi, I'm Dr Clayton." He said, shaking Jack's hand.

"Hi, Jack Holden, Martha's friend, how is she?" He asked.

"Well, she's a fighter let me assure you of that! Her heart stopped beating during my examination, but we brought her back and have stabilised her." Dr Clayton explained.

"Can I go in and see her?" Jack asked, relieved by the good news.

"Certainly, she's asleep at the moment though." Dr Clayton said, showing them to her room.

"Thanks Doc." Jack and the others replied almost simultaneously, and slowly walked into the room. Martha lay there, linked up to machines monitoring her heart. Even though she looked so ill, to Jack she looked so beautiful. He pulled up a chair and sat beside her bed, holding her hand. Christie indicated to Ryan and Callum that they should leave Jack alone with her, but Callum objected.

"No, I've got just as much right to see her as him." He said.

"No you haven't, now get out." Christie ordered. Callum looked at Martha, then Jack, then Christie.

"Fine.." He muttered.

"You know you can be very bossy when you want to be Christie." Laughed Ryan, as he walked out with her.

Jack sat there for about half an hour, just gazing at Martha. They could now make a proper go of their relationship, they both knew how one another felt, and they were both alive! Nothing could stand in their way.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Martha started to stir, her eyes blinked rapidly and her hands started to fidget. She slowly opened her eyes. They spun around the room as she tried to focus. She felt her hand being held tighter. She rolled her head to see who it was.

"Oh my god I'm dead." She said aloud. Jack laughed.

"No you're not, and neither am I." He smiled.

"No, you can't be! I watched you die, you died in my arms!" Martha reasoned.

"Well, obviously I didn't." He smiled. "I'm still here aren't I?" He looked into her eyes.

"Jack!" She exclaimed, her voice filled with joy. He leant over and hugged her. "I love you so much." She sighed, "I thought I'd lost you forever!" He pulled away from their hug and sat back down beside her.

"I thought _I'd_ lost _you_ more like." Jack smiled. "I love you Mac, and now we can make a proper go of things, you, me and the baby. Seen as though neither of us are dead." He said, touching her belly.

"Why do you think I'm pregnant?" She asked curiously.

"Well, it's a long story, but I was watching Callum, Christie and Ryan discuss it." Jack explained. Martha giggled.

"I'm guessing you didn't watch the part when they told me?" She said, Jack shook his head. "Well then you would have seen me say it wasn't possible."

"Oh." Jack said. "Damn." He hit his hand against his head. He'd made a real fool out of himself with Dave now.

"What?" Martha asked, concerned. "You wanted me to be pregnant?" She asked, shocked.

"No. No I didn't." Jack laughed.

"Then what?"

"It doesn't matter." He smiled. "Well, it'll be just you and me then, if that's okay?" He asked.

"Oh, I don't know about that.." Martha joked, slowly sitting up in her bed.

"Careful!" Jack nearly shouted, jumping up to help her.

"I'm fine!" She said. "Now you're here." He lent in for a kiss when Callum, Christie and Ryan all walked in.

"Oh, we aren't interrupting anything are we? Because we can go if you want..." Ryan asked. Jack and Martha laughed.

"No, come in guys." Martha said excitedly, reaching out to hug Christie.

"I'm so pleased you're okay Mac! You frightened me to flippin death!" Christie said.

"Yea, me too." Callum sighed, pulling a chair up on the other side of the bed.

"Well, I personally don't see what all the fuss is about.." Ryan joked. "Just kidding, it's great to see that you're okay." He smiled and stood at the foot of her bed with Christie, wrapping his arm around her.

"Hey hey, what do we have here?" Martha smiled.

"Tiny bit obvious isn't it?" Christie replied.

"Yea, I totally saw this coming! Awww! I'm glad you two came to your senses!" She laughed. "You look very cute together might I say!" The next half an hour was spent with the group all listening to Jack's story, how he worked undercover with Trevor, and then when he jumped off the cliff.

"You jumped off a cliff, for me?" Martha said, smiling.

"Yup." He grinned.

"Aww! You're so cute!" She laughed, playfully pinching his cheek. There was a knock at the door.

"Hi Martha, how are you feeling?" Dr Clayton said, holding a clipboard and some files in his hand.

"Great! Thanks doctor, so can you tell me what happened then?" Martha enquired.

"Well, your heart stopped twice, due to the stress that the drugs had on your heart." The doctor explained.

"What drugs?" Martha asked.

"It seems that you've been injected with a drug that is meant to calm you down. The dosage that you have received would be perfectly safe for people like myself, however, due to your weakened heart, your body just couldn't deal with it." He said.

"Oh. Is that why I've been feeling so poorly recently, the headaches, the tiredness, the sickness?" The doctor nodded.

"Yes, they are all side effects of this drug, I guess you must have been experiencing smaller doses then, but your recent one most have been larger to cause this to happen. If your friends hadn't rushed you in, then I'm sorry to say that you would have probably died. You are a very lucky lady." He said. Martha lay gob-smacked.

"Thank you." She said, as the doctor left the room. "I can't believe that sicko drugged me!" She exclaimed. Martha, Ryan, Christie and Callum all ranted for half an hour about how shocked they were that this had happened, and how crazy this guy must be. Jack, however, didn't pitch in on this conversation, due to his overwhelming guilt.

"Are you okay?" Martha asked, she'd noticed Jack's quietness.

"Yea, erm, I'm just going to go outside to ring Peter." He said, squeezing her hand affectionately before letting go and leaving the room.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

He stepped outside the main entrance and collapsed against the wall, raising his hands to his head.

"I nearly killed her!" He said angrily. "Her heart stopped beating twice, because of me!" He stood there for a while, before calling Peter and letting him know where to find Trevor. Jack took a stroll around the hospital grounds, trying to get his head straight. "I had to do it, for the investigation." He told himself. "If I hadn't, then Martha wouldn't be out now." He finally assured himself that he'd done the right thing, and feeling a little bit better he headed inside.

Jack walked in to find Callum and Martha talking alone, and his eyes shot straight to their hands. Callum was holding both of Martha's hands and it looked as if they were in a very tense and important conversation. A shot of jealousy ran through Jack's spine, but he continued to walk in and sit on the seat next to her bed.

"Hey Mac." He said, smiling at her. "Bought you a present from the shop!" He held out the kitkat chunky.

"Thanks!" She said, letting go of Callum's hand to retrieve the chocolate. "You were saying Callum?" She asked him, but he just looked towards Jack.

"Never mind, we'll talk about it later." He said disappointedly.

"Oh, okay." Martha said, "So, where'd you go?" She asked Jack.

"Just outside to have a bit of a walk." He was going to tell her about what he'd done, just not now, especially in front of Callum, as he knew that Callum would probably make it sound worse than it was. "Feeling any better?"

"I will be when I eat this kitkat chunky!" She laughed. Jack smiled at her. He was so lucky to have her, and so lucky that she was alive. Peter, Christie and Ryan all walked in, crowding the room.

"Hi Constable." Peter smiled. "I thought I'd update you on the investigation news. We've caught Trevor, and just finished interviewing him. He's admitted to holding you lot, so it looks like he's going down for a very long time." Peter said. "I asked him about the drugs that you'd been telling me about, and he confessed to ordering you to inject them, so that's going to be a further year at least on his sentence." Peter continued. He hadn't noticed Jack's desperate attempts to shut him up, which started as soon as he'd mentioned the drugs. However, Martha had noticed, and was now glaring at him. Jack looked at Martha, as he could feel her eyes burning into him.

"I'm sorry Mac." Jack began.

"Can you give us a minute please?" Martha asked everyone, not lifting her stare off Jack. When they had all gone Martha's anger started to show.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22 

"Why did you do it?" Martha asked, trying to stay calm.

"I had to do it, I didn't want to! I'd always squirted out most of the drug from the syringe, just leaving the tiniest droplet to make it look like I was injecting you with the stuff, but last night Trevor came in and watched me inject it as you slept, I had no choice but to give you a bigger dose." Jack explained. "I'm really sorry, but if I didn't do it then I wouldn't have earned his trust and the whole investigation would have gone down the drain." Martha's eyes widened as she tried to understand what he was saying.

"So the investigation is more important than me then? You'd rather pump drugs in me than ruin a stupid investigation?" She shouted.

"No, no it wasn't like that Mac-"

"It was exactly like that. I know how much you love your job, I just thought you'd love me more!"

"I do! Martha I had to do it."

"No you didn't! I died today, twice because of you! My heart stopped beating Jack! Because you didn't want to fail in an investigation, you wanted to be a great cop." Martha was getting worked up. "What if Callum hadn't resuscitated me, what if I wasn't alive right now? That could have so easily happened, because of your selfishness!" Jack just sat there in silence, he didn't know what to say. He knew that if he reasoned she'd only get more worked up and angry, she didn't need the stress so he felt that being quiet was the best way. "You weren't even going to tell me were you? You were going to carry on like nothing had happened? You actually thought that we'd be able to continue!" She raved.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked, shocked.

"Jack, you nearly killed me, you put my life on the line for your work, do you really think that we can continue?" Martha pointed out.

"I had to do it Martha! I never would have done it if I thought it'd harm you!" Jack protested.

"Jack! They're drugs, how can they not harm me? Listen. You killed me twice today! I can't just forgive you for that. You put drugs in my blood, and I've suffered pain because of it. Where the hell do you suppose we go from here?" Martha shouted.

"But I love-" Jack began, reaching out for her hand. She snatched it away.

"Get out." She said. Jack sat watching in disbelief, this couldn't be over, he didn't want it to be. "GET OUT JACK!" She screamed. Jack slowly stood up, Martha wouldn't even look at him. "I never want to see you again!" She shouted as he started to walk towards the door. He took one last look, and walked out, full of anger, hurt and sadness. Jack stormed down the hall, his thoughts taking over his mind. 'What have I done?' He loved Martha so much, and now she hated him. He hadn't really seen it before, but he now understood why she'd be so angry, it did look like he chose the investigation over her. Christie and Peter ran up to catch him.

"What's up?" Christie panted, out of breath after her long jog down the corridor. "Martha will understand, just give her some time." Christie began, still trying to keep at the same speed as Jack. He stopped suddenly.

"No, she hates me."

"I'm sure she doesn't" Christie said, putting her arm around him.

"No, she does. She nearly died today because of me! In fact, she did! Even if she did forgive me, I'm not sure I could forgive myself. I was a fool to drug her, I wish I'd fought more against Trevor's orders." Jack explained. "You should have seen the way she looked at me, the way she talked to me in there. She doesn't want to see me again." Jack mumbled. Christie sat down next to him.

"Well, you still have that stewardess' number don't you?" Peter joked, Jack and Christie both gave him a sharp look. "Just kidding.. sheesh!" Peter sighed.

"What stewardess?" Christie asked Jack.

"On the plane here, Jack got a stewardess' number. Alice wasn't it? She was nice.." Peter answered, smiling and putting his hands in his pockets, earning an evil glare from Jack. "What? She was!"

"But what about Martha?" Christie asked.

"He thought she was dead." Peter answered.

"And that makes it better?" Christie said, standing up.

"No! I never rang her back, and it's not like I gave her my number, it was the other way around." Jack tried to explain. "I love Martha so much and can't even imagine going out with someone else, that's why I haven't called her back." Christie smiled.

"Good." She said, "Well, I best go and see how she is. Are you coming?" She asked Jack.

"No, she doesn't want to see me Christie, it's over between us." Jack sighed, getting up and walking out of the hospital, Peter following close behind. Christie looked on. She couldn't believe how stupid they were being! She knew how much Martha loved Jack, and vice versa. She turned around to head for Martha's room when a familiar face was right behind her. She let out a gasp.

"Oh my god you scared me!" She said, collecting her normal breathing pattern. "What the hell are you doing so close behind me anyway?" Christie asked.

"Jack's got another girls number?" Callum asked, ignoring her question.

"Yes, but it's not like he's called her. Why?" Christie said, suspicious.

"No reason." Callum mumbled. "Just going to get a coffee, want one?" He offered.

"Nah. I've had like 10!" She laughed, and walked down the empty corridor and into Martha's room, leaving Callum standing there with a slight smile on his face.

"Hey!" Christie walked over to Ryan and kissed him on the cheek.

"Awww!" Martha teased.

"Martha, I've just seen Jack in the corridor and-" Christie began.

"Please, don't. It's over between us, he's a selfish idiot who only cares about his job, I don't want to speak about it Christie." Martha warned. Christie reluctantly agreed and sprung up another conversation.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23- a week later

Martha lay there, fiddling with the pale green hospital sheets that were covering her. She lifted them up and swung her legs to the side of her bed, sitting up. She sat there, staring at the wall for a moment, then stood up and started to walk out the room. But a man blocked her way.

"Oh, hi!" Martha said, forcing a smile.

"Hi. How are you?" Callum said, guiding her back to her bed, where they both sat.

"I guess I'm okay." Martha sighed.

"Jack?" Callum asked. Martha gently nodded.

"Well, I've got something to tell you, I don't think you'll like it, but I think you should know." Callum began, holding Martha's hands.

"What?" She asked, worried. Callum looked away, and then back at Martha, thinking of a gentle way to put it.

"I don't know if it'll mean anything to you, but when Jack was coming to Sydney, he met a girl called Alice and asked for her number, it sounds like he quite likes her." Callum said. "But I think he'll stop calling her for you." Callum put a smile on his face. Martha looked down, trying to take it in.

"So, Jack met someone else.." Martha mumbled.

"Yes. But he did think you were dead." Callum reasoned. "But I can't see how that makes anything better, I thought he loved you, he moved on pretty damn quick." Callum commented. A single tear rolled down Martha's cheek. "Oh, I'm sorry, me and my big mouth. I shouldn't have commented." Callum sighed, wiping the tear away from her cheek. "I think he's a jerk if that makes it any better, he doesn't deserve a wonderful woman like you." Callum said, smiling and looking into her eyes. Martha couldn't stop thinking about Jack. She was angry, but the overwhelming sadness that she was feeling now drowned out that emotion, all she wanted to do was cry. She finally clicked onto what Callum had said. He was right, Jack was a jerk, and Martha did deserve better than him. The thoughts that Callum put into her head blinded her from the mistake she was about to make. Callum leaned in for a kiss, pulling her in by her hands. Martha didn't know what to do, she felt hurt and betrayed by Jack, and Callum was sat there, a much nicer man than Jack. He'd never drug her, or make her feel the hurt she was feeling now. Before she knew it Callum and her were kissing.

Jack strolled down the corridor, flowers and kitkat chunky in hand. 'You can do this, don't leave until you get back together.' He told himself. He stopped in front of the door and took a few deeps breaths, preparing himself for what he knew was going to be one of the hardest conversations he'd experience with Martha. He slowly pushed open the door, as he tried to build up the courage, however, he hadn't opened the door far when his heart sunk. There, sat on the edge of the bed, were Martha and Callum holding hands and kissing. He backed away from the door, in shock. He put his hand to his head. 'I've really lost her now.' He thought. One side of his brain was arguing to go in and get Callum, but the other wanted to just get out of there, and that side got the vote. Jack walked briskly out of the hospital, shoving the flowers into a bin outside the electric doors.

He jumped in his car, angrily slamming the door and thumping the steering wheel, letting out his anger. The car horn let out a long note due to the impact. Jack rested his head on the steering wheel, only to be brought back up when he searched around his pocket for his mobile. He started to dial a number.

"Hey mate!" A familiar voice said.

"Dad, I'm coming home."

"Okay! Is everything alright mate?" Tony asked, detecting the unusual tone in his voice.

"Yes! Great!" Jack lied. "See you later." Jack cut off the phone, throwing it onto the seat next to him and drove out of the hospital car park.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24.

"No" Martha said, pulling away from Callum's grip. "No I can't do this. I love Jack. I'm not ready to move on." She said, standing up. "Sorry, but no." Callum looked confused and hurt.

"So you're going to go back to Jack?" Callum asked angrily.

"No. I can't go back to him after what he's done, but it's still too soon to move on. If we were together it'd probably only be rebound or something, I'd be using you to get over Jack."

"What's to get over?" Callum argued. "He drugged you Martha. He doesn't really care about you! He'd only thought you were dead for about 2 weeks before eye-ing up another girl, you obviously don't mean that much to him. I doubt he really loves you. Not like I love you." He stood up and went to kiss her again, but she pushed him back.

"I said no Callum. Now get out!" She screamed, pointing at the door. Just then Christie appeared at the door.

"What's going on?" She demanded.

"Callum was just leaving." Martha stated, staring at Callum. He stood up and left the room. Martha collapsed on the bed, covering her face with her hands. 'What have I done?' she thought to herself.

"What the hell happened?" Christie said concerned. Martha sat up and looked at her friend.

"A big damn mistake that's what." Martha told Christie about the events that had just occurred. She didn't say anything about Alice, because she didn't want to sound jealous, even though she clearly was.

"I knew he liked you.." Christie said. "I just can't believe you hadn't noticed! It was so blatantly obvious!" Martha sighed.

"I wish I had, I may have foreseen this mess and could have done something to prevent it!"

"Are you mad because you've lost such a great friend?" Christie guessed.

"No." Christie looked shocked.

"I mean, he turned out to be not such a great friend after all." Martha said. Christie gave a look of confusion. "He got quite mad, and was saying that Jack didn't care for me, and that he thought he didn't love me."

"Jerk!" said Christie. "Anyway, are you ready to go?" Christie asked, standing up.

"Yea, my bag is over there." She said, pointing towards the sports bag in the corner. Christie picked it up and started to head out the door.

"Come on girly! You're going home! You should be excited!" Christie laughed. Martha was excited about seeing Alf, Ric, Tasha and Robbie, but she wasn't looking forward to seeing Jack.

Meanwhile, Jack was walking around Sydney Police Station, searching for Peter.

"Finally." He sighed, looking up at the metal plaque that clearly stated Peter's office.

"Hello?" Jack said, knocking on the door.

"Hey Jack, come in!" Peter welcomed, looking up from his work. "Take a seat, have a drink." Peter offered, taking out two glasses and going through his second draw.

"Nah, I'm fine mate. Just popped in to say goodbye that's all." Jack explained. Peter shut the draw.

"Ok. Well, as long as you know that I was about to get some water out my draw, not a bottle of whisky that's fine..." They laughed. "You're going back to Summer Bay then?" Peter asked.

"Yea."

"When do you have to be at the airport?" Peter asked.

"I don't. I'm driving." Jack said.

"Why? It takes loads less time on the plane? And you're only renting the car anyway."

"Well, the company I'm currently renting off is a kind of major company, with branches all over, including the airport where my car is parked currently. They were transferring a few cars over anyway, so they're letting me drop this one off at the airport."

"Oh, right. Well, I'm thinking of going back to Summer Bay for a while anyway. Claire and I are due a holiday, and it'd be nice to see Dan, Leah and Ryan. So we might see you there in a couple of days." Peter smiled.

"Oh, cool." Jack replied. "Better go then. Got a long journey ahead! See you soon." Jack said, and left the office.

"I'll miss you so much!" Christie cried, fighting through the tears.

"Oh my god you wuss, we'll see her soon!" Ryan laughed. "Won't we?"

"Yes of course! You're going to have to come down to Summer Bay and see me! I know Granddad will love to meet you." She smiled. The PA system rang out, calling Martha's flight. "Well that's me." She smiled, reaching out to hug Christie again.

"Bye! I'll..miss..you" she snivelled.

"Me…..too…Ahhh" Ryan mocked, putting his arms around both of them. "See you Mac." He smiled, hugging her.

"Bye!" She waved walking away.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Martha gazed out the window as she passed the "Welcome to Summer Bay" sign. She was so excited about seeing all her old friends and family, but she was also worried that they'd moved on and forgotten about her.

"Here please." She said, reaching in her purse and paying the Taxi driver the fair. "Thanks." She said, hopping out in front of the Diner, and excitedly strolling through the door.

"Oh my gawd!" Colleen screamed.

"What now Colleen-" Irene said, coming out of the kitchen. "MARTHA!" She exclaimed, clapping her hands to her mouth. All the eyes in the Diner were now looking at Martha, everyone's faces were as white as sheets.

"You look like you've seen a ghost." She joked, trying to break the silence. Sadly, no one laughed, but an extremely happy Tasha did run up and hug her, nearly knocking her off her feet.

"Mac!" She shouted. "Oh my god you're alive!" Martha laughed.

"Looks that way don't it? Hey Rob." She said, hugging Robbie.

"But young Jack said you were dead." Colleen said. Angry thoughts of Jack returned to Martha's mind.

"Well, he was wrong." She smiled. "If that's okay?" She joked.

"It's great darl, we're so happy! You're granddad will be over the moon!" Irene cheered.

"Do you know where he is?" Martha asked. She was so excited about seeing her granddad after so long.

"He's at Noah's." Irene said.

"Thanks Irene." Martha replied, briskly walking out of the diner with her bag on her hip, shortly followed by Robbie and Tasha.

On the way to Noah's, Martha filled them both up on what had happened.

"So you and Jack are back together then?" Tash asked.

"No. Tash, I'd rather not talk about it now, I'd rather listen to what you've been up to!" Martha said, changing the subject. Robbie and Tasha looked at one another, they knew something wasn't right, but they left the subject alone.

Martha strolled into Noah's, she didn't know why but she was nervous as well as excited. She knew that her granddad would be overjoyed, but she still had the butterflies in her stomach. Maybe it was because she hadn't seen him in so long, or maybe it was because she feared of giving the old man a heart attack. She took a deep breath before walking through the double doors of her old work place. Everyone was busy working, or drinking to notice her. She took a second to look around at the people that she'd missed for so long, and the most important person of all, her granddad.

"Granddad!" She shouted, dropping her bag to the floor. Alf spun around in response to the familiar voice he heard.

"Strike me flamin' handsome!" He exclaimed. "Martha!" Martha ran up and hugged her granddad tight, tears of joy running down her cheek.

"I've missed you so much!" She said. "I love you granddad!" Alf broke away from their hug and looked at her in disbelief.

"How?" He asked. But Martha was distracted by the crowd of people she'd attracted, each one had a more bemused look as the previous. It was obvious what everyone was asking themselves, 'how Martha could be stood there?' Of course, Martha had to answer all of their questions, but she only gave a brief explanation, ensuring that she didn't mention Jack's name. She couldn't deal with the questions about him right now, as she didn't have the answers. So she stood there, laughing, joking and generally catching up with her old friends. She couldn't have been happier.

"Jack will be thrilled when he sees you Martha." Tony smiled, he could just imagine his sons reaction. "Shocked, of course, but thrilled none the less."

"Oh, he will!" Alf added. "He really cares for you Martha, when he came back to tell us the news, he was the one that suffered the most. Sure, the young lad tried to act cool about it, but I think we can all safely say he was heartbroken."

"Yes, his speech was marvelous at the ceremony. It came from the heart." Beth said.

"What ceremony?" Martha asked perplexed.

"Oh, well, we had a ceremony for you. We couldn't have a funeral as we didn't have your body, but the people of the bay paid their respects on the beach." Alf explained.

"It was gorgeous. Jack's idea." Beth added.

"Yes, he organized most of it. He also chose the plaque and the bench." Alf said. "Great lad." Alf smiled.

"Plaque, bench?" Martha was getting seriously confused.

"We'll show you later." Tasha said, nudging Martha.

"Oh, ok." Martha nodded.

"So when's Jack back?" Alf asked Tony.

"He's not back?" Martha asked surprised. "I thought he'd have been back by now…" Martha mumbled.

"You mean, you knew he was gone?" Alf enquired.

"Yea, he was the cop who was undercover. The one that got me out..." She mumbled.

"The one that saved you?" Tony asked proudly. Martha sighed.

"Yep." She didn't mention that he was also the one who put her life on the line, even though she hated him right now, she didn't want to ruin his reputation.

"So he knows you're alive!" Tony exclaimed. "Why isn't he with you?" Tony said, starting to become suspicious. He knew that Jack's investigation was over, so he could have told him about Martha on the phone earlier, but he didn't. Something was definitely wrong.

"I don't know where he is." Martha stated, shocking everyone. "Can I stay over at the flat granddad?" Martha asked, both breaking the silence and changing the subject.

"Yea sure." Alf managed to spit out, still bemused at the Jack situation.

"Thanks, I'll go drop off my stuff and I'll see you later." Martha said, picking up her bag and leaving the bar with Tasha and Robbie.

"I wonder what's gone off there." Tony muttered to Beth, who was clearly thinking the same thing.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

"Here it is." Tasha pointed at the bench, parked up facing the beautiful sandy beach.

"In loving memory of Martha McKenzie." Martha read. "This is just too weird." She laughed, sitting on the bench. "So where's the plaque?" Martha asked.

"I don't know.." Tasha admitted. "No one does. Jack kept it all very secretive, he was going to tell us but then he had to rush off to the investigation, so he delayed the unveiling until he got back. We've looked everywhere for it haven't we Rob?" Robbie nodded.

"He obviously didn't want it to be found." He laughed. "You know he was really upset when he came back. He tried to act strong, but everyone could see through it, and he knew it. He was really heartbroken Mac. I'd see him in the Diner, and he'd be too busy off in la-la land to notice me. He actually called me 'Mac' once when I approached him mid-daydream."

"I don't look like you do I!" Martha joked, trying to prevent the questions that were obviously coming.

"What happened between you two?" Tasha asked. Martha knew she would have to say something sooner or later, and she guessed that Tasha and Robbie would be the easiest to talk to about it. They sat on the bench for an hour, coaxing every detail out of her. Finally they got the full story, well, up to their argument. Martha didn't really want to discuss anything about Alice or Callum, she didn't feel it was necessary, and she didn't like thinking about either of them, let alone talking about them.

"Oh my god! He drugged you?" Tasha said, putting a comforting arm around Martha. Robbie said nothing. Sure he felt sorry for his friend, after all she was drugged and nearly died as a result, but he knew that Jack wouldn't have done it for anything else but a good reason. He wasn't going to pass judgement before talking the events through with Jack.

It had now been hours since Martha arrived, all the town knew, thanks to Colleen, and had experienced both shocked and pleased emotions. Now all they awaited was the arrival of Jack, which wasn't going to be as far off as they thought.

Jack walked into Noah's.

"Hey Dad! How did I know you'd be here?" He laughed.

"Careful mate, you'll make me sound like a drunk!" Tony joked as Jack sat down next to his dad. He soon noticed the stares that he was receiving.

"What have you told them?" He whispered to his dad. Tony laughed.

"Nothing! I don't think I've got anything to do with why they're staring Jack." Tony replied innocently.

"I've got something on my back haven't I?" Jack said paranoid, jumping up and tugging his top at the back, spinning his head around attempting to look on the back of his top. Tony and Beth both laughed.

"Mate you look like a fool. Sit down." Tony chuckled. "Nothings on your back." Jack sighed and sat down, still confused and uncomfortable about the 18 eyes that were watching him. It was only until Tony and Beth started to ask how he was, when he suddenly realised. 'Martha's been here.' He hadn't thought that she'd return here, after all she had a life in Sydney now, that was her home, not here.

"What's happened with Martha then?" Alf said, interrupting Jack's thinking.

"You mean she hasn't told you? Nothing happened! She's alive!" Jack joked, acting dumb to avoid giving a real answer. "I'm going to go catch some surf, see you later dad." He said, patting Tony on the back and practically running to his car.

Jack sat in his car, what was he going to do? He was bound to walk into Martha sooner or later, and he couldn't get the image of her and Callum kissing out of his head. He rested his head back on the headrest and closed his eyes, trying to come up with some sort of plan to avoid Martha. But instead of coming up with an amazing, clever plan, he fell asleep, exhausted from his long drive.

A few hours later, Robbie was walking back from Martha's flat, where he'd left Tasha and Martha to have girly chats and generally catch up. And as he was strolling through the car park, in the direction of Noah's, he'd spotted the familiar green car in the car park. And as he walked closer, he noticed that Jack was still in the car, asleep at the wheel. He tapped on the window, waking Jack up with a jump.

"God you scared me!" Jack exclaimed. Robbie laughed.

"Hey mate. Where you going?" Robbie said, through the window.

"Well, I guess home, unless there's a raving party that I'm just about to be invited to?" Jack asked, hopefully. Robbie chuckled.

"Come on, I'm coming with. We need to talk anyway."

"If it's about Martha then-"

"Then what? You're going to tell me Jack. I'll get it out of you sooner or later, and it might aswell be sooner." Jack sighed.

"Fine. What do you want to know?" He said, driving from the car park and in direction of his home.

"Are you sure?" Tasha asked, gob-smacked. "I'd seen him hours before he left, and it appeared that he definitely wasn't going to be getting over you anytime soon." Tasha said.

"Obviously not." Martha sighed.

"Callum could just be making it up, after all he does sound like he really liked you. Sometimes strong feelings can shadow your better judgement, so maybe he lied to ensure you and Jack wouldn't get back together, giving you and him a chance of a relationship." Tasha suggested. Martha shook her head.

"Nope, he's not like that…" Martha mumbled.

"Well, he did kiss you didn't he? Then say that Jack didn't love you. Doesn't sound that nice of a guy to me.." Tasha started, but Martha ignored her.

"Have you found it yet?" Asked an impatient Martha.

"Yes, here." Tasha said, pulling a book out of the bookcase and passing it to Martha.

"This is both funny and freaky." Martha giggled to herself as she flicked through the pages of the album. Out of the album slid a disc labelled "Martha's Ceremony." She carefully put it on the side and then shut the book.

"Come on, lets go out!" She smiled.

"Okay then." Tasha said. "Shall I call Robbie?" Tasha asked.

"Yea sure." Martha said, getting up and walking towards her room.

"Let me just get changed first." She said, opening her wardrobe. "Oh my god where are my clothes?" Martha nearly shouted, walking out of her room.

"Oh yea, Jack must have them." Tasha said.

"Why would he have them?" Martha enquired.

"Well, he was supposed to give them to charity, but I overheard Tony saying that he found them just before he left for the undercover investigation. Jack hadn't been able to give them away." Tasha explained.

"Right." Martha said, grabbing her bag. "Lets go and get them before Jack gets back." She smiled, dragging Tasha by the arm.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Martha and Tasha were walking up the drive when Tony pulled up in his car.

"Hey Tony!" Martha shouted in friendly voice. "Is it okay if I get my clothes? Apparently Jack has them." Martha asked.

"Yea sure, he's not home yet so you can just go straight into his room." Tony said, unlocking the door and gesturing for the two girls to enter. "You can show yourselves out right? Sorry I'm just going to have a quick nap." Tony explained.

"Sure. Oh and thanks." Martha smiled, walking through the corridor and into Jack's room. It'd been so long since she'd been in there, but it all seemed very much the same. Tasha and Martha looked around his room, through the draws and in his wardrobe, but with no luck. Martha came across a familiar photo frame on the desk. She curiously picked it up and looked at the picture. Tasha saw her doing so, and went to see what the photo was.

"Me and Jack. When I first got my digital camera, and we took it down to the beach to try it out and stuff." Martha laughed as she thought of the fun day. "It was great." Martha sighed, backing up and sitting on the edge of the bed. Tasha joined her.

"You can still fix this you know. You can be together." Tasha advised.

"No, we can't." Martha said, falling back onto the bed. "It's over between us. Would you be able to forgive Robbie for drugging you, or picking his schoolwork over you?" Tasha sighed.

"Good point." She answered. Martha took one last look at the photo in her hand and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep. It took Tasha a few minutes to realise, and she chuckled as she swung Martha's legs around onto the bed, and left her to sleep. "It's been a long day." Tasha smiled. "Bless." Tasha then continued rummaging around draws and cupboards looking for Martha's clothes.

Robbie and Jack started to walk through the door. Jack held his finger to his lips.

"Shh. Dad will be asleep. He normally has a nap at this time on his day off." Jack explained. Robbie signalled the OK sign, and they both headed in the direction of Jack's room. "I'll just get changed then we'll go to Noah's." Jack told him as he approached the door. However, he was stopped dead in his tracks when he heard the draws in his room open and close. Again, he told Robbie to be quiet as he slowly crept the door open. Revealing Martha asleep on the bed, and Tasha going through his draws.

"What the hell is going on here?" Jack whispered, not to immediately wake Martha up. "Is Martha asleep?" Jack pointed out, trying not to laugh.

"Well she has been up to a lot lately, you know, talking about you drugging her.." Tasha began.

"What? She told everyone?" Jack asked worriedly.

"No. Just me and Tash." Rob explained. Jack gave a sigh of relief and then looked over at Martha, lying on the bed.

"What are you doing here?" Jack enquired.

"Looking for Martha's clothes." Tasha answered, still rummaging around the draws. "Where the hell are they?" She said, impatiently. Jack chuckled.

"Here." He said, kneeling on the floor and reaching under the bed to bring out a pile of Martha's clothes, and dropped it on Martha. To his surprise she didn't flinch. He watched her laying there, peacefully sleeping. But the smile on his face faded as it changed to worry, remembering about when she never woke up. Flashbacks of the event appeared rapidly before his eyes. The images looked so similar to what was currently before his eyes. Martha was so still, so quiet, so unlike her usual self. He sat next to her on the bed, shaking her.

"Martha? Martha!" He panicked.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Martha woke up slowly, her eyes focused on Jack. She smiled.

"Jack.." She exclaimed, her voice full of happiness. Even though it had only been a week since they had last seen each other, she had still missed him so much, and was really pleased to be looking up at him at that moment. She smiled as she watched him give a huge sigh of relief and smile back at Martha. But that didn't last long as thoughts of Alice and the drugs came sweeping back to her mind, and her anger returned. "..What the hell do you think you're doing?" Martha shouted, sitting up. Jack sighed.

"I was worried that you hadn't woken up. I thought that maybe, it'd happened again.." Jack's voice trailed off. "Anyway, I could ask the same question to you! Why are you asleep on my bed with my.." He looked down at the object in her hand. The picture of them. "Why do you have that? Have you been looking at it?" Martha and Tasha looked at one another. Martha felt embarrassed at Jack's discovery.

"Tasha asked where the picture was taken, so I tried to tell her, but I've forgotten. I must have fallen asleep with it in my hands." Martha lied. She knew exactly where it had been taken, every time she gazed upon the photo she remembered the fun day that they shared. Jack looked down at the photo.

"Oh, right." He was shocked that Martha could forget something like that, he'd loved that day, it was one of the happiest he'd shared with Martha. Then again, most of the days he shared with her he saw them as happy, and he wasn't going to forget them anytime soon, at least not as fast as Martha had. Jack stood up and made his way to the wardrobe, pulling out a shirt and jeans and throwing them on the bed.

"Sorry ladies, but you're going to have to leave." Jack smiled. "And Robbie." He added. Tasha looked confused.

"Why? What are you doing?" Tasha asked.

"Going to Noah's. Want to come?" Robbie asked Tasha.

"Well, me and Martha were going to go…"

"Great! We can all go together!" Robbie exclaimed, clapping his eyes. Martha and Jack both keyed into the conversation and started to make 'um' noises, as they thought of an excuse. "Unless either of you want to be mardy and unsociable because of the other?" Robbie smiled. He always had a way of wording things so they were almost impossible to refuse.

"No." They both sighed. Robbie and Tasha smiled at one another.

"Well, you may aswell get dressed here!" Tasha suggested. "Your clothes are here, and then we can get a lift in Jack's car." Tasha said. Martha put up a fake smile.

"Sure. This is going to be great!" She said sarcastically, searching through her clothes to find a nice top and jeans. Robbie and Tasha left the room.

"I guess I'll get changed in the bathroom." Jack sighed, walking past Martha, not making eye contact.

Jack put the note for his dad and Lucas on the kitchen worktop, and then went to join the others in the car. He hopped in the driving seat, next to Robbie. They drove in silence, only to be disturbed by Martha's phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey Martha, it's Callum." Callum said. Martha looked towards Jack. She didn't know why, but she felt like she'd cheated on Jack when she kissed Callum, even though they weren't together.

"Erm, now's not a good time." She mumbled, trying to make up an excuse.

"Please, Martha, where are you? I love you! Please give us a chance?" He pleaded down the phone.

"Callum-" She tried to say, placing her hand to her forehead, but his plea continued. Everyone in the car had heard the mention of Callum's name, and Tash looked towards Martha, trying to imagine what Callum was saying, as she could see Martha was clearly stressing.

"Can you just pull over Jack? Let Martha talk on the phone in privacy?" Tasha suggested. Jack sighed. 'Sure, that's what I want to give them..' he thought.

"Yea." He agreed, pulling over at the edge of the road, where Martha popped out and walked a few metres back. Tasha and Robbie both tried to keep the conversation away from Callum and Martha, but Jack wasn't paying attention, he was too busy thinking of what Callum could be saying. 'Maybe they're girlfriend and boyfriend. They must be. They're pretty close, he likes her, she obviously feels the same way. They're on the phone to one another right now!' Jack thought. He looked through his wing mirror at the reflection of Martha. She was now walking back, with a fake smile plastered on her face.

"Hey." She said, hopping into the car. Jack drove off, unable to take Callum and Martha off his mind.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

"We'll get the drinks." Robbie said to Tasha and Martha as him and Jack walked to the bar. Jack stood at the bar in a trance as Robbie ordered the first round.

"Wow, it really did affect you." Robbie continued. Jack awoke, looking to Robbie.

"Sorry, what did you say mate? What affected me?" Jack asked.

"Callum's phone call to Martha. Ever since she got it you've been on a different planet." Robbie said. Jack couldn't be bothered to argue, even if he did, he knew that he wouldn't be convincing. "So now you've just got to tell her." Robbie said, patting him on the back. Jack nearly choked on his beer.

"What?" He spluttered. Tasha and Martha spun around to see what was happening, they'd both assumed that the person coughing and choking on their beer would be Robbie, but to their surprise they saw it was Jack. Martha looked at him stood at the bar, making a big scene with his coughing fit. She felt a small smile appear from the corner of her mouth, as she found it quite funny watching him splutter and get embarrassed.

"Tell him." Tasha whispered. Martha took her gaze from Jack and looked towards Tasha.

"What?" Martha asked.

"Tell him that you love him and that you so desperately want him back!" Tasha giggled.

"No! I don't! I'm fine without him, he's a jerk." Martha said angrily.

"Why the hell would I tell her? She's happy with Callum now anyway." Jack argued, now having his breathing and coughing under control.

"How do you know she's happy with him?" Robbie asked.

"You should have seen them there. She wasn't thinking about me. She knows how much I like her, and that I am really sorry for what I did, so it was up to her, and she chose Callum." Jack mumbled, looking past Robbie's shoulder and to Martha. 'He has a point. I'll drop it for now' Robbie thought.

"Come on, help me out here." Robbie said, gesturing for Jack to pick up two of the drinks.

"Tasha darling." Robbie smiled, passing her a drink and leaning over the table to kiss her cheek.

"Thanks." She smiled sweetly, taking a sip. All eyes were now on Jack, holding the two beers in his hands. He heavily put Martha's drink down on the table, not making eye contact. She reached over and took a drink.

"Service with a smile." She mumbled sarcastically. Jack looked up at her and gave her a short over-the-top smile.

"Better for you?" He snapped.

"Much." She said, Tasha and Robbie laughed, trying to make a joke out of it all, but Jack and Martha just sat quietly drinking.

The four of them sat in awkward silence for about 10 minutes before Robbie finally brought up conversation.

"So Mac, what's dying like? You did it twice, you should be an expert." Robbie joked. "Ow!" He shouted, Tasha had kicked him under the table for bringing up the whole drugs incident. Jack and Martha looked towards him confused.

"What's up mate?" Jack asked, puzzled.

"Pins and Needles." Robbie muttered, giving Tasha deadeye. The four sat quiet for a moment, before Martha decided to continue with the conversation.

"Well, I can't really remember it. Maybe if we get Jack to drug me again then I could write notes!" She said. "He wouldn't take a lot of convincing, especially if we got his boss to ask." Martha commented, giving an evil glare at Jack. Robbie and Tasha looked at one another, and then looked towards Jack who just sat fiddling with the sticker on his beer, trying to ignore what Martha was saying.

"Footy's on tomorrow isn't it?" Jack asked Robbie, ignoring Martha. This made her more infuriated.

"Tasha. Robbie." Martha interrupted. "You two love each other, right?" She asked. Tasha and Robbie gave a sigh of relief, she had stopped making digs at Jack, maybe now they could all have a peaceful drink together.

"Yes." Robbie said, holding Tasha's hand on top of the table.

"Aww aren't that cute?" Martha asked Jack, with a sweet smile. "Anyway.." She continued, looking back at Robbie and Tasha.

"Say if one of you died, how long would it take you to move on, you know, go on a date?" She asked. Tasha realised where she was leading, and tried to think of an answer that would stop her in her tracks, before she started on Jack again.

"I'd never get over her." Robbie smiled at Tasha. "It'd take me a while before I even thought about dating someone else." Robbie answered.

"Mac I think-" Tasha began, but was interrupted by Martha.

"A year perhaps?" Martha asked. Jack wondered what point she was trying to prove, but Robbie suspected nothing and carried on the conversation.

"Oh more than that! 5, 6 maybe." Robbie answered. Tasha leant her head on her arm, now there was nothing she could do to prevent what was going to come out of Martha's mouth.

"Oh, that's funny, it only took Jack a matter of weeks." Martha snapped, looking towards Jack.

"What?" Jack asked, puzzled.

"You know, Alice?" Martha said. She didn't know why she was doing this, but she just couldn't seem to stop. All the sadness inside of her had changed to anger, and she was letting it out on Jack. Jack didn't know how she'd found out about Alice, but he couldn't believe the cheek of Martha having a go at him because of it. After all, he'd done nothing with Alice, and Martha and Callum had kissed!

"Yes, I know Alice." Jack answered sharply.

"Alice? Who the heck is Alice?" Robbie interrupted.

"Well," Jack answered, not looking away from Martha, "she was the stewardess on the plane ride to Sydney, she gave me her number." Robbie looked shocked.

"You called her? It'd only been a couple of weeks since Mac-" Robbie began.

"No I didn't call her. I never made contact with her again after that flight." Jack answered, his gaze still remaining on Martha. "So what point were you trying to prove then Martha?" Jack asked. She was so confused.

"But Callum said-" She began, but Jack was too furious to let her speak.

"Oh! Callum! How is your lover-boy Callum by the way?" Jack snapped. Martha and Tasha looked equally as confused.

"What?" Martha enquired. "He's not my lover-boy. He's just a friend."

"Really? You see I have a hard time believing that Martha!" He said, his voice growing with anger.

"Why is that?" Martha snapped in reply. Jack stood up.

"Because you two were kissing at the hospital!" Jack shouted. Martha spun around to Tasha.

"I didn't say anything." Tasha promised, holding her hands up innocently.

"She's right, she didn't. I was at the door." Jack explained. Martha could see the hurt in his eyes as he stood there looking at her in disappointment and disgust.

"I..I didn't see you…" Martha said guiltily.

"Obviously not. You were too busy with Callum." Jack replied harshly. He stood there, staring at Martha. He'd tried to forget about it, but he couldn't, and every time he thought about it, it made him angry. The anger had built up inside him, and was slowly overpowering his love for Martha. He could look at her now, and not feel the love he knew that existed somewhere deep inside of him, he could just feel hatred and betrayal.

"Jack I.." Martha tried to think of something she could say to make it better, but she couldn't think of anything.

"Save it. I don't really care anymore. You can throw your tantrums if you like, and hold a grudge against me for the drugs, because I'm not going to be around you to know about it." Jack said before storming out of the bar.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

"Are you sure you're okay?" Tasha asked. "We totally understand if you want to be alone, or if you want to talk about it?" She suggested. Martha shook her head.

"I'm fine!" Martha insisted, rummaging through the draws for the bottle opener. Her, Tasha and Robbie were now all in Martha and Alf's apartment. She finally opened the beers and sat down on the sofa in-between Tasha and Robbie, handing them a beer each. Martha was trying to keep her mind off Jack, if they left then she knew that she wouldn't be able to stop thinking about him, she needed as many distractions as possible.

"Oh! Let's watch this!" Martha grinned, picking up a DVD and inserting it into the DVD player. She sat back down and pressed play on the remote. The words 'Martha's Ceremony' faded in onto the screen.

"You sure you want to watch this?" Robbie asked. "It's like practically your funeral." Robbie laughed.

"I know! Won't it be funny…" She said, turning up the volume and taking a drink of her beer. But it wasn't as funny as she thought it'd be. All her friends and family were either crying or looking very upset. She watched through the service, as her friends and family each said their little bit about her, shared a few tears, and sat down. She was just about to turn off when the next person stood up. Jack. He walked over to the microphone and took a few deep breaths.

"He looks so nervous." Martha said to Tasha and Robbie, who both looked at her, awaiting her reaction. He talked for about 10 minutes, but not once did the speech sound boring, as he kept everyone involved by slipping in the occasional joke, or funny memory that made people smile. Martha watched in admiration as Jack talked about her.

"_She.. She had a way of making you smile, even if you didn't think it was possible that you could. That talent of hers made it practically impossible to hold a grudge, well I know I found it hard."_

She paused the DVD after that comment, and looked down at her hands.

"I don't think that's going to fix things now." Martha muttered. "I've ruined it completely." Tasha put an arm around her, embracing her in a friendly hug. During this hug, the DVD began to play again, and Jack's speech continued. It was nearing the end of his speech, and it was clearly visible that he was trying not to cry. Martha stared at his brown eyes welling up with tears, and listened to his shaky voice, trying not to collapse with the sadness he was feeling. She paused it, again.

"I've never seen him cry." Martha said to Robbie and Tasha. "He didn't even cry when he got shot and thought he was going to die. Yet, he was fighting back the tears when he thought I was dead."

"He loved you a lot." Robbie said. "More than you can imagine."

"Exactly." Martha said, a tear rolling down her cheek.

"What?" Robbie and Tasha asked in unison.

"Loved."

Jack slammed the door behind him. He walked into the lounge and angrily threw his jacket onto the sofa, making a loud bang as the two leather's collided.

"What the flamin' hell is going off here?" Alf asked, walking away from Tony who was standing in the kitchen, just as bemused as he was.

"I could ask the same question mate?" Tony said, following Alf's steps towards Jack. Jack hadn't seen either of them when he entered, as his mind was too busy on Martha.

"Sorry Alf, Dad. I'm going to bed." Jack apologized, walking to the door.

"Hang on. What's wrong?" Tony asked. Jack looked at Alf. He couldn't tell his dad when Alf was stood there, and anyway, he didn't want to think about Martha, let alone talk about her. He hadn't realised how long he'd been stood there, shooting blank looks at both Alf and Tony.

"It hasn't got anything to do with Martha has it?" Alf enquired. Jack sighed and put his hands in his pockets as he thought of what to say. "That girl!" Alf said, grabbing his jacket.

"No, it's not. It's something to do with…work." Jack lied, he didn't want Alf going home telling Martha off, because then she'd know that he was affected by their argument.

"Oh, ok. Well I best be going." Alf said, he waved goodbye and went, leaving Jack and Tony stood in the living room.

"It's not work, is it?" Tony asked. Jack ignored him.

"I'm going to bed." Jack answered walking off into his room.

"Jack!" Tony called back, but the only response he got was the sound of Jack's door being shut. Tony decided to leave it until the morning, and headed off to bed himself.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Tony and Lucas sat at the breakfast table the next morning, both chomping through their cereal.

"Where's Jack? I haven't even seen him yet!" Lucas said. Tony sighed as he put down the newspaper.

"I guess he'll have gone for a morning run or something, to clear his head. You know what he's like." Tony replied, looking back to his paper.

"Why would he need to clear his head?" Lucas asked. Tony lowered his paper, again.

"I don't know. Something's up with him, but I'll find out." Tony said, resuming with reading the article. Lucas shrugged as he eat his last spoon-full of corn flakes, and took his bowl to the sink, where he started to wash the few pots that were already sat there. Someone knocked at the door. Tony folded his paper and threw it on the table next to his bowl, giving a sigh of frustration as he was once more interrupted from reading the article that he'd been attempting to finish all morning.

"Beth." He smiled.

"Hi Tony." She smiled back.

"Come in." He said. She walked in a few paces and turned around to face Tony again.

"How's Jack? I was in Noah's last night and overheard the argument with Martha. Well, it would be hard not to hear the shouting." She laughed. Tony and Lucas both looked puzzled.

"He was shouting?" Lucas said, surprised. "At Martha?"

"I knew there was something wrong with him! Do you know what it was about?" Tony asked.

"Well, I'd noticed that him and Martha weren't really getting along that well. They often made little digs at one another, not pleasant comments." Beth thought back to last night. "Martha had obviously said something bad to Jack, because he shouted out something about seeing her kissing someone else at the hospital. He ended up practically saying he didn't care about her anymore, and didn't want to be around her." Beth said. Tony and Lucas looked at one another, this wasn't the Jack they knew. "Should I have said this?" Beth asked, worried that she'd gone and got Jack in trouble.

"Yes, you should. Thanks Beth." Tony smiled, resting his hand on her shoulder. Jack then burst in, his bright and bubbly smile soon drifted away as he adapted to the mood of the room. He quickly realised what had happened when he saw Beth. She was working last night at the bar, she'd seen his argument with Martha, and she'd now told Tony and Lucas.

"Well, I'll leave you boys to it then." Beth said, Tony kissed her on the cheek goodbye, and turned around to Jack.

"Come on. Talk." He said, pointing to the sofa. Jack reluctantly sat onto the designated seat, and began to tell his dad everything that had happened. Everything from his first undercover mission, to the night before at Noah's. He'd never got chance to talk to his dad much about what happened in Sydney the first time, he was too busy grieving for Martha for the few weeks that he was in the bay, so this time he could really explain, and Tony would get the whole picture. Lucas had invited himself in the conversation, and sat next to Jack on the sofa, listening to his story.

Martha decided to eat her breakfast in the diner with her granddad the next morning. It wasn't because she longed for the wonderful English breakfast that was cooked so well by Leah, it was because she knew the diner would be busy, and she hoped this would keep Jack off her mind. Everything was going well until her granddad brought up Jack's name.

"You and young Jack had an argument last night, didn't you?" Alf asked. Martha carried on eating, she hoped that he'd get the hint, but of course he didn't. "Last night I went over to Tony's, to talk about the football team, and Jack came storming in, he was in a state Martha. He denied it having anything to do with you, but according to some of the customers at Noah's, you two had a bit of an argument last night." Alf said.

"And?" Martha said, tearing her toast up and dipping it into her egg. "Your point?" Alf sighed.

"I know how stubborn you are, how tough you try to look. But I also know how delicate you are, and how much you like Jack." Martha looked up at her granddad, listening to his wise words. "If you like him, tell him, make sure you get him back." Alf advised. Martha put her hand to her forehead.

"But I can't, I've really messed it up granddad, he won't forgive me." Martha said, her voice started to waver as her eyes began to fill with tears. She looked away, trying to swallow her sadness. Alf chuckled.

"I'm sure you can find a way." He smiled. "Go on." He insisted. Martha smiled as she wiped away the tear that had escaped.

"Thanks granddad." She said, standing up and practically running out of the diner.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32

"How can your life be so complicated?" Lucas asked in astonishment. Jack turned around to his younger brother.

"I sometimes wonder." He chuckled. Tony was too deep in thought to say anything. He was concentrating; trying to come up with some sort of advice that he could see his son was desperately seeking. "So…?" Jack asked. At first he didn't want to tell Tony, but as he was explaining everything through, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and he knew that his dad could help him now. Well, he thought he could.

"Sorry mate." Tony sighed.

"What? What do you mean, 'sorry'?" Jack asked.

"I don't know what to say. It does seem like Martha likes this guy Callum. After all, you said they were close in Sydney, then they kissed, and they're still talking, so it can't be bad can it?" Tony reasoned. Jack nodded gently.

"I suppose it can't." Jack said, disappointed. He didn't know why he was disappointed, he hated Martha for doing that to him, but he hated more the reality that they weren't going to be together again.

"Are you sure she doesn't like you?" Tony asked.

"Yup. She won't forgive me for the drugging, even though I had to do it, for her sake! I didn't do it for my job dad, I can't believe she'd think I'd do something like that.." Tony put his arm around his eldest son.

"Jack. If Martha did like you, then what would you do?" He asked him. Jack looked confused.

"But she doesn't."

"Yes, but what if she came barging through this door right now and said 'Jack will you take me back? I'm sorry, I love you.' What would you say? Would you take her back?" Tony asked. Jack looked down at his hands, as if they'd have the answer. Lucas stood up.

"I can do a bit of role play if you like?" Lucas laughed. He ran and opened the door, standing just outside. He knocked. _ "Hi!" _ Lucas said, in a strange high-pitched voice._ "Jack! I love you so much! You're my Romeo." _He let out a girly sigh._ "Take me back? I don't like that idiot Callum, it's you I want! My cuddly bear!" _Lucas said, laughing. Jack threw a pillow at him playfully.

"When does Martha EVER sound like that?" Jack laughed. Lucas walked over in front of Jack.

"_Well?" _ Lucas said, tilting his head to the side and clasping his hands just below his chin.

"You know how camp you sound? Wait until I tell Maddie.." Jack teased. "I wonder how she'll take the news of her boyfriend pretending to be a girl for fun?" Lucas threw the pillow back at Jack.

"Just tell us what you'd say!" He said, sitting back down on his chair. Jack thought for a moment. He thought back to how he felt when he walked into that hospital room. Every time he'd thought of, talked about, or saw Martha, he thought of that kiss, and it sent pains down his spine. 'How can I have a relationship with that going off in my head?' he thought. And as that question ran through his mind, he knew what his answer would be.

"It'd be no." Jack sighed, resting his head back onto the soft, cushiony leather back of the sofa. "I can't stop thinking about it, I can't stop imagining it, so how would I be able to forgive her?" Jack asked his dad.

"I don't think you could." Tony answered.

"But I know that somewhere inside of me loves her, but this anger is just… drowning it out. That shouldn't happen. If I love her we should be fine, right?" Jack pleaded.

"Sometimes love just isn't enough Jack." Tony explained wisely. Jack knew his dad was right, even though on this occasion he desperately didn't want him to be. He closed his eyes, trying to gather his thoughts and organise what he was going to do. Lucas watched as his brother sat coming to terms with his break up. He knew it was so wrong, Jack and Martha were made for each other, or so he thought. How could it be over? Jack's eyes sprung back open.

"Why are we even discussing this like it's an option?" Jack asked. "As we said before, there's no reason for her not to like Callum. The evidence is all there, the friendliness, the kiss, the call… the decisions not even up to me." Jack continued. "I'll get over her. It's obviously not meant to be. I'll be fine. I was for a year wasn't I? I got over her before!" Jack said, trying to convince himself.

"No you didn't Jack. You pretended you did. We found the photo of you two in your draw." Lucas admitted. Jack's face fell.

"Well, I'll do it properly this time." He said, getting up and walking towards his room. Lucas and Tony looked at each other in bemusement.

"What are you doing?" Tony shouted, as Jack was now in his room.

"Well," he said, reappearing with a sports bag full of stuff. "I'm going to take all our stuff to her apartment." Jack explained. "Then I won't have anything to remind me of her here." He said happily, as he exited the house through the open door. "Thanks for the help!" He shouted back as he shut the door behind him. Jack threw the bag on the passenger seat of his car, driving off fast before he had chance to actually think through what he was doing and stop himself from putting a seal on their break up. He'd been in that much of a rush he hadn't noticed Martha on the bench just outside of the Holden's house, tears streaming down her face. She'd heard everything since Lucas' impersonation, as he'd left the door wide open. It wasn't like she was spying or anything, she'd just walked up to the door as Lucas was acting all girly, she didn't want to interrupt, as she was intrigued into what he was doing. When she listened to what he was saying she soon realised who he was pretending to be, and what that person was going to ask. She kept quiet, listening for an answer, but she wished she hadn't, because it wasn't the answer she wanted. As she listened to Jack talk about how he was going to get over her, she felt her knees start to tremble and grow weak, so she took a seat on the bench, still listening to everything that was going on. She was now watching Jack's car drive off into the distance, thinking about how foolish she'd been. She knew that she should head to the apartment, accept the things off Jack, perhaps even talk to him, but she couldn't pluck up the courage, so she just strolled off aimlessly, letting her legs guide her absent mind for once.


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33

She found herself walking up a sandy path, heading for the familiar cliff that she used to spend much of her time on. It was the cliff where her and Jack had shared their first kiss, and for her it had the best scenery in the whole of Australia. Not just because of the view of the gorgeous sandy beach, and the clear, beautiful blue sea crashing into the rocky cliffs, it was because of the memories that came flooding back as soon as she stepped onto the hard rock. She carried on walking up the path, across the bumpy ground, when something shiny blinded her as she reached the top. She made her way towards it and sat beside it, trying to figure out what it was. The gold, glowing object was red hot as she touched it, causing her to whip away her hand almost instantly. She moved a little away, blocking the suns light and stopping the glow, allowing her to see the actual object. It was a plaque. Her plaque; and engraved was her favourite poem. 'So this is where he put it' she thought, smiling at his choice of location. But the smile soon turned into a frown as she thought of him dropping off her things at her apartment, right now. She sat staring at the plaque, instead of the beautiful scenery behind her. Whenever she saw the edge of that cliff, she reminisced the good time she shared with Jack, when he forgave her. She didn't want to think about that now, so she chose not to suffer the pain and didn't look.

Jack sat, his legs dangling over the edge of the cliff. His navy sports bag was sat beside him, and Martha's journal on his lap. He hadn't been able to take Martha's possessions back to her apartment, not without having a last look anyway. He'd been searching through the bag, briefly looking at the memorabilia's that it contained, when he came across the journal. He had toyed with the idea of reading the remaining pages, but wasn't completely sure if he should, seen as though he knew that she was alive. After a little while of staring at the tattered front cover of the journal, he flicked through the pages, looking for the point he'd left the reading at, when Martha left the bay. His reading was interrupted by a short cry from behind him. He spun around, to find Martha facing the opposite way.

"Martha?" Jack asked. She turned around to the familiar voice, quickly wiping away her tears.

"Jack." She smiled. They sat there for a moment, staring at one another. Jack didn't like to see her crying, it made himself feel sad watching the tears roll down her cheek. He wanted to comfort her, make her feel better, but the feeling of betrayal kept him from doing so.

"We need to talk." He said. Martha nodded slowly and walked up near the edge of the cliff. "You sure? We don't have to stay near the edge." Jack asked, surprised at how far Martha had actually come.

"I'm…fine.." She said, her voice trembling with the fear. She put her hand on his shoulder as she slowly lowered herself and sat down on the edge, also dangling her feet over the waves. Jack let out a light chuckle, as he watched Martha stare below them, she was clearly petrified. She looked up. "What are you laughing at?" She asked. Jack shook his head.

"Nothing.." He lied. They both sat in silence, waiting for the other to start to speak. "Why were you crying?" Jack asked, concerned. Martha looked up at him, she'd stopped crying now, but her eyes will still red and sore from her sobs.

"Stubbed my toe…" They laughed, he knew that it wasn't the truth, but he wasn't going to push it. Martha's eyes drifted to the journal on Jack's lap, he saw her look at it.

"Erm, I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't-" He began.

"It's okay." She smiled. "I don't mind." Jack was taken aback by Martha's calm mood, he thought that she'd kill him for reading it. "What point did you get up to?" She enquired.

"Well, the night before your ceremony I read up to… when you left to go to Sydney." Jack answered. Martha nodded.

"Hmm, well, that's a good topic actually." She said. Jack looked confused. She wasn't going to start arguing with him again, was she? She took the diary from his hands and opened to the page, then returned it and gently patted the page. "Go on." She smiled. Jack hesitated at first, but he really wanted to read it, so he did as he was told. It only took him a few lines until he stopped.

"I heard you say this, when we were in Sydney. You said it to Callum, Ryan and Christie." Jack said. "I didn't know you were leaving the bay!" Jack protested. "I ignored the text because I was trying to get over you, not that I didn't care you were leaving. I'd avoided the Diner because I was trying to forget about you, so I never heard about you going to the city, well that was until that night at Noah's." Jack's voice trailed off. "I couldn't believe you'd left without saying goodbye. I thought we meant more than that."

"So you cared?" Martha asked, hopeful. Jack smiled.

"Yes, I did."


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34

"I missed you when you left, you know." Jack mumbled.

"I missed you too." Martha smiled. "I couldn't stop thinking about you for months, that's why Claire set me up with dates." Martha explained.

"Yes, same here. Tasha and Robbie did it to try and help me. I wish they hadn't now, because of Jenny." He laughed.

"Yea, I wish I'd never met Dave. I wish I'd never left the bay." Martha sighed.

"Me too." Jack smiled. The only sound that could be heard was the gentle lapping of the waves beneath them, and the sound of the pages of Martha's journal turning over. Jack started to chuckle.

"What?" She asked.

"I was just thinking about when we first saw each other on the first undercover mission. Your face.." He laughed.

"It was a shock!" Martha giggled. "I could say the same thing about you actually, I could tell you were pretty surprised too!"

"At least I didn't cover up with a headache!" Jack teased. Martha playfully punched him.

"Well, it was better than your gorm of an expression." She joked. Her laugh slowly faded away as she collected a more serious tone and expression. "I know I never said it, but I was so pleased it was you." Martha admitted. Jack's puzzled expression forced her to explain. "You have this way of making me feel safe, and that's what I needed when Dave was around. You could see how edgy I was around him when I used that self defence move on him, when he crept behind me." Jack laughed.

"Yea. It's nice to know you still use it, so that session wasn't a complete failure." Jack smiled. "Why didn't you tell someone about Dave?" Jack asked, he'd clearly tormented himself with this question for quite a while. "You could have told me, I would have helped you." Jack said. "You didn't have to suffer for so long, I thought you knew that I was always here for you."

"But I thought you hated me. And I was also angry with you for not saying goodbye. I was close to ringing you once though, when Dave started lashing out. I had the phone dialled in my mobile and everything, but I just couldn't go through with it. I wanted to talk to you so badly. I knew that you'd be able to make everything better, but I couldn't get our argument out of my head, I didn't think you'd want to hear from me." Martha explained. Jack looked down at his hands, his heart full of guilt. If he hadn't of been so mean to her before she left the bay, she would have had more confidence to ring him for help, it would have spared her all the beating, all the bruises, all the pain. Jack suddenly felt something soft and warm on his hand, he refocused to see that Martha was resting her hand on his. He looked up at her and their eyes locked. "Don't feel guilty Jack, it wasn't your fault we fell out." Martha smiled. Jack, who had been in a trance ever since she touched his hand, snapped out of it and brought his hand away from hers. He wasn't ready for this, he couldn't just get over her and Callum. Martha casually drifted her arm back to her side, disappointed that Jack clearly couldn't forgive her. Jack started to flick through the pages of the journal, trying to create as much noise to break the awkward silence. A word suddenly shone out from the pages, reminding him of what Martha had said to Callum, Ryan and Christie.

"You thought I'd slept with Jenny, didn't you?" Jack laughed. Martha looked up at him confused.

"Yea. You were out all night Jack, where else would you have been?"

"In the back garden, trying to sleep." Jack smiled.

"What?" Martha enquired.

"I left my key inside before I left, then when I returned later I couldn't get in. I tried knocking but you mustn't have heard-"

"Because I had my Ipod on loud.." Martha laughed. "So you didn't sleep with her then?" Martha asked excitedly. Jack shook his head.

"Nope." They both laughed.

"Wow. That was a big misunderstanding with a hell of alotta consequences, hey? I got engaged because of that!" She giggled. Jack thought for a moment.

"What did Dave do when you told him the wedding was off?" Jack asked.

"Shouted, lashed out, everything you'd expect from a man like him." Martha explained. "Hey, the bruises and scratches have all gone." Martha bragged. Jack laughed.

"Yea, but look at this beauty." Jack said, slowly pulling up his top to reveal the bullet hole scar in his stomach.

"Nice." She smiled. Jack gleamed.

"Isn't it just." He said, not looking away from the scar. Martha sighed as she stared at the circle imprinted on his skin.

"Thanks for saving me." She smiled. Jack looked up at her, lowering his shirt.

"Anytime." Jack grinned.


End file.
